Child of The Sun
by Elegos-Sirinial-Shamtul
Summary: A child of Apollo who didn't show dyslexia or ADHD, and was missed by the Satyr's. This is the story of his trip to Half Blood Hill, and his quest to recover the Hellfire Cross. Set before 'The Lightning Thief'
1. Where I explain about me

**Okay. This is my first foray into the world of PJO, so be nice.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick. Rick owns PJO. I don't.**

**Child of the sun**

Who am I?

I'm probably not the best one to ask. I don't fit a profile, or a stereotype. Some claim that this makes me an 'Indy' but that's just another stereotype, totally defeating the object in my opinion.

But I digress. I'm Artie Callin, the boy with the suckiest life in history. I'm a thirteen year old with some decent martial arts skills, impossible to manage brown hair and a pair of eyes that refuse to show any emotion whatsoever, regardless of what the rest of me is doing. I know what your thinking, doesn't sound so bad right? Wrong. Because I grew up being raised by my mother, who is now dead. And I know that I should have been able to save her.

I suppose I had better begin with the big one. The Greek Gods are real, all of those myths are real, sometimes metaphysically but often literally, and the gods like nothing better then to fall in love with humans and have kids by them.

Some things never change, huh?

When I was growing up, I realized pretty early that something was wrong with me. When I looked at a book, I could see the letters blurring, swimming in front of my eyes. I knew that it wasn't normal, so I resolved to make sure that no-one would ever find out. So I practiced reading. Obsessively. It wasn't easy, 'because I also discovered pretty quickly that I had all the attention of a hyperactive spaniel. So I worked on that too. I would spend hours forcing myself too sit still, working desperately to conquer my problems. Because my Mum had always said that with the right attitude, I could succeed. I could change the world.

It was only after four years at school that I learned about dyslexia, and ADHD. But because of my secret studying, which had often kept me up well beyond the point where my body could function properly; my grades were all within the top quarter of the class.

So I couldn't tell anyone about my problems. I had to keep working.

I had thought that as I grew up, it would get easier. It didn't. Every passing year brought new issues to be dealt with, new methods to devise, and hour after hour of obsessive training.

It was my teacher who caught me, in my sixth year. It was obvious that I was going to be diagnosed with a disorder. She told me to wait in her office, while she spoke to my Mum.

She didn't seem shocked to be getting this talk. She looked like she had been expecting it all of her life.

"Arthur," she said, in a tone that she only used when she was worried, "This is nothing to be ashamed of. It's just something that you need to work on. You see, it turns out you have a disorder" She paused for breath, as if she was reluctant to tell me what I already knew, that I was dyslexic, that I was a freak, that I was useless.

"You have OCD" she said softly. My jaw hit the flaw. I had heard about OCD, often enough, but I had figured it was all about washing your hands obsessively and repositioning salt pots.

"But…no that's not right. I'm normal. I don't have any problems. Honestly…it's that teacher, she hates me, she wants me expelled…" I was babbling now, desperately trying to convince my mum that I was fine, but she knew me too well, and I was never any good at lying.

"Arthur, this is nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn't reflect badly on you at all. Honestly."

"But, what does it mean? I am I going to have to be medicated? Or am I going to have to go live in an asylum? Don't let them take me Mummy!" I was close to tears now.

"Don't worry. I'd never let them take you. It just means that you need to be careful, and make sure that you don't do anything dangerous okay?"

"I promise mum. I promise"

I broke that promise years later, but I never forgot it.

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A few years later, I was in a dusty store, looking for something I could use as a birthday present for my mum when I found it. A wooden staff, maybe two foot long, with a word in a language I couldn't recognize engraved along the side. I picked it up, and found that it seemed to fit my hand perfectly. I turned around to find a man in a wheelchair smiling at me.

"Taken a shine to that staff, haven't you, my boy." He said, delightedly.

"Umm…yeah. But I don't suppose I could afford it. It looks like it's probably valuable. An antique, maybe." I replied, halfheartedly.

"You're right there, my boy, but I think it belongs to you now. It's chosen you." He laughed, and then shooed me out the door, holding the staff, while chuckling good naturedly.

It wasn't long before my OCD led me to become obsessed with the staff. I would spend any free time I had besides my studying training with it, learning what strikes seemed comfortable, how best to shift my hands to change direction in my strikes, how to use the staff as a defensive weapon. I taught myself Eskrima, the traditional art of stick fighting, and studied fencing, kendo and a dozen others.

I wouldn't realize until much, much later, how much this would come in handy.

All the while, my grades continued to stay steady, due to more and more excessive study sessions. I began losing my battle with ADHD, finding it harder then ever to pay attention in the classroom. The few friends I had became distant, as I spent less and less time with them. But I didn't seem to care, because I had my training, and my studying to occupy my time. Life wasn't exactly good, but it was…comfortable. Everything seemed to work out in my mind.

I should have known then that it wouldn't last.

**So what did you all think? Go on, review. You know you want to. Just look at that enormous green button. You know you wanna click it! The next Chapter will be up reasonably soon. **


	2. Where I undergo a tragedy

**Wow…big thanks to the epic reviewers that are: Silent Reviewer, fishponysrock, ForeverShallNatureThrive, and of course, the epicly awesome Reborn-fire-bird.**

**Disclaimer: If you see something in this fic that reminds you of something else, then I probably don't own it. **

**A/N A couple of you left questions but I can't reply 'cause you did it anonymously. Basically, OC=original character, OOC=Out of character and OCD=Obssessive Compulsive disorder. Anyway, on with the story.**

The year started badly. That wasn't exactly a surprise, every year started badly for me, as I realized exactly how hard I was going to have to work to keep pace with the class, but this year, my perennial bad luck took a different route.

My mother became ill. My stepfather left. (Actually, that wasn't so bad, we'd never seen eye to eye.) My grades began to decline as I had to spend more time looking after my Mum, but none of the teachers called me on it, because they knew what I was going through at home.

I discovered pretty quickly that I was good at looking after the sick. I found I could understand what was needed when my mum was vomiting, how to get her blood pressure up, exactly what dosage to give her of any given medicine. I wasn't quite sure how I knew, it just seemed to come naturally. Of course, my brain wouldn't let me accept that, and I found myself memorizing everything about her care.

I think that I'd like to do that when I grow up, be a healer, or a doctor. I want to help people.

Three months into term, my mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. There was nothing that the doctors could do, saying that they had never seen such an aggressive form of the cancer. They said that if she was lucky she might last two months before her body gave out. She lasted three, three months of sheer determination and willpower.

I was with her on the last night, holding her hand, telling her that it would be okay, that she would survive. But I knew it was a lie. I could see how frail she looked. I knew she wouldn't last the night. I think she knew it too.

"Artie…" she murmured, her voice so weak it terrified me. "After I'm gone, it won't be safe for you. They will…they will find you. You need to get to New York. A place called Half blood Hill." She gripped my hand with surprising firmness, and looked me straight in the eye

"Promise me Artie. Promise me you'll be alright."

"I promise Mum. I'll be okay. Now rest, okay?" I replied, feeling sick with anguish.

She smiled, and her eyes fluttered. Her hand lost its grip on my own. The machines around her began to beep continuously. The monitors to the side were registering flat lines. The Doctors ran in, using defibrillators and checking for responses, heartbeats, pulses. But it was futile. I knew in that moment that she was dead.

My stepfather came back to help arrange the funeral. He took me in, although he had no reason to. I guess I should have been grateful for that, but frankly, I found it hard to be grateful in a world that had taken my mother away from me.

In any case, I wasn't intending on staying any longer then necessary. I had made a promise to my mother to get to half blood hill, and I wasn't going to break that promise. I went through her personal papers, until I found an address on a business card, which I then checked on a map. I withdrew all the pocket money I'd been saving up for the last two years, $300 dollars in total. I figured that that would be enough to get to New York. I figured once I was there, I would catch a cab into the right part of town, and then get directions from someone.

It still bugged me why my mother had sent me to somewhere in another city, or quite why she trusted me to get there myself, but I knew my mum wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important.

On the day of the funeral, I packed up several changes of clothes, my map, all my money, and of course, my staff. I also threw a CD in there. I wasn't sure why, because I didn't have a portable CD player. I just figured it was my crazy brain acting up again, and I didn't have the energy to fight its irrationality.

I sat quietly at the back of the funeral, listening to the speakers, running over her words to me in my head. When she was buried, I just slipped away quietly.

I walked away from that funeral, and with it, my old life.

**I know…I know…it's moody, depressing, short, but I like it. Let me know what you think. Please!!!! I'll write the next chapter once I get five reviews. So I f you don't review, you won't find out why Artie needs a CD, or what can happen with a Behemoth, a tube station, and a little luck…**


	3. Where I fight congestion and a monster

**Thanks to the wonderful: Ellen 26, Olympianchef213 and ibetwin1 for reviewing the last chapter! You people rock! And thanks again to Ellen 26 for pointing out that I should have said Mom instead of Mum.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned this, would it be on Fanfiction?**

To say that I was nervous would be a massive understatement. I'd seen WAY too many cop shows where they track down fugitives using little quirks in their behaviour, predicting their moves. And let's face it, I had some pretty huge quirks for the police to track. I would be a profilers best dream.

But I knew I was being paranoid. I was a teenage kid who'd lost his Mom, with no one to really miss me. My stepdad might call the police, but I was well out of the city right now. If I was going to be caught, it would have been before I caught a train to New York, not now that I was in a different jurisdiction. I'd be another statistic, just another missing kid, that people pitied, but didn't really care about. Still, that didn't stop me looking over my shoulder every few seconds as I walked towards the tube station.

This was it. The last link in my journey, my little odyssey. After this tube journey, I'd be a few hundred yards away from this "Half Blood Hill." I'd crossed state lines, rivers, I'd walked across the Hudson bridge, all without event. But I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go very, very wrong.

Still, I was used to getting weird signals from my head. In any case, I hadn't come this far to turn back at the finishing line. So, I boarded the tube, ignoring the typical "Bit young ain't ya boy?" from the tube driver, grabbing a seat close to the door.

I reached into my bag, and started taking stock of exactly what was in there, ticking items of in my head.

Shirts: Check

Trousers: check

Underwear: Check

Staff: Check

CD: Check

Food: Check

Wait a minute. What CD? Then I remembered the CD that I had thrown in my bag when packing. I took it out of my bag and looked at it properly, for the first time since putting it in. It was one of my favorites, a mix CD I'd made a few years ago. I tried to remember what was on there. Definitely some Nickleback, maybe some Linkin Park, and a pair of random tracks by a band called Kaddisfly. Nothing really special, but it would be nice to have it with me when I was bored. If only I had something to listen to it on. I put the CD into my pocket, and began wondering what was so important that I had to go to another city for.

I was awoken from my thoughts by the sound of the tube shuddering to stop. This was my stop. Within another half hour, I'd be at this place, and I could finally find out why I was doing what I was.

BOOOOM!

The blow blasted me off my feet, throwing me into a roll, as I dodged chunks of masonry and shard of steel. My head whipped round to see what had happened

I don't know what I expected, but a giant, armour cladded rhino looking…thing certainly wasn't it. Worse still, it was looking straight at me.

Then it charged. It didn't pace it's hoof like a bull, it just lowered its head an barreled at me. Somehow I managed to jump out the way, and watch it career into a post, stunning it momentarily. I looked around myself, searching desperately for an exit. The main stairs had collapsed in on themselves. The only other way out was past the beast. I'd have to fight it if I wanted to survive. I reached into my bag and ripped out the only weapon I had at the time, my wooden staff.

A small part of my mind told me that a stick wasn't going to do much damage against something that huge, but the adrenalin part of me too over, and shouted down rationality. After all, what was rational about this scenario?

The beast was on its feet, but approaching more carefully, obviously aware of the danger of another misguided charge. I took the offensive, running forward, and slashing at the beast with my staff leaving a red mark, and creating an angry hissing sound that might have come from the wound, but probably came from the beast, dodging its horns and kicks. Its back leg caught me flinging me into a sunny patch of the station, the roof having partially collapsed from the beasts assaults. I could feel my ribs breaking as the beast struck me. I was trapped in a corner, no room to dodge. The beast would get me in its next attack. I had failed.

My eyes closed, and I thought: _I'm sorry mom. I tried to make it to Half blood Hill. At least I'll get to see you soon._ I waited a few moments before opening my eyes, before realizing that the beast was waiting on the edge of the sunlight, unable to reach me.

Of Course! The beast had attacked while I was underground! It probably wasn't used to the sunlight. If only I could use it to blind the beast. Then I remembered the CD in my pocket. I grabbed it immediately, and angled it towards the beast.

My plan worked, the beast recoiled and reared up on two legs. I saw that one of it's lower armor plates was hanging loose, probably damaged by the beasts initial assault on the tube station. Without thinking, I leapt up, and wrenched the plate loose, revealing the beast's soft underbelly. I raised my staff, and drove it into the beast heart, twisting it as I went."

"Asta La Vista Baby!" I said ecstatic at my seemingly ludicrous triumph, as the beast disintegrated into mist

"Asta la vista? You gotta be kidding me. You take out a behemoth, and then ruin it by saying something so dorky? Honestly, have some creativity!" I jumped, and turned to face the exit. Standing there were two people. The first was a girl, with short blond hair, and vivid green eyes. The second one was in a wheelchair. The man from the store I got my staff from. He was looking at me with wonder.

"I wondered when I would see you," he said, ominously.

**Okay, I'm not very good at writing action scenes so please don't flame. Offer constructive criticism if you want, but not insults. Please review, it brightens up my day!**


	4. Where I flirt and get confused

**Big thanks to the awesome: music5692, reborn-fire-bird, Fred, the Minotaur and Olympianchef213! You peeps rock!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this. So please don't sue me!**

"I was wondering when I would be seeing you." The man in the wheelchair said ominously.

Darkness was nibbling at the edges of my vision. Obviously I'd been wounded more in my battle then I had thought.

"Hey. You're…" I started to say, before I was cut off by the man in a wheelchair.

"I'm sure that you have many questions, and I will answer them, but right now, we must leave. The police will be here soon, and it will be better if we are not here when they arrive. But first, tell me, what was the name of your satyr? I'll have his head for not reporting your journey to me." He said, all at a rush

My brain tried frantically to process this onslaught of new information. Police? Satyrs? What the hell was going on here? I took a step forward, shifting my weight onto my left leg.

I let out a scream as my entire left leg lit up with pain. I realized I must have broken it in the fight and that now the adrenalin was wearing off. Darkness enveloped me, and I fell to the floor.

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I woke up in a small bed, simple wooden head rests and plain white cotton sheets. I forced my way up from under the waaay to tight cotton duvet, and looked around me, trying to figure out where I was.

Then I noticed that I wasn't alone. The girl from the tube station was in the room with me, holding a tray. Closer inspection revealed it to carry a large glass of a strange looking liquid, and some odd squares of food, that looked like nothing I'd ever seen before.

"Here. Drink this, and eat these. We had to give you some while you were unconscious to keep you alive, but now that you're awake, it should be enough to get you back on your feet." As she said this, I became horribly conscious of the fact that I was staring at her.

Her eyes seemed slightly too large for the rest of her face, and they were a ridiculously bright green, that almost appeared to glow in the soft light of the room. Her face, while not really what I considered beautiful, was certainly attractive, and this wasn't at all hurt by the bright blue color of her hair, which was now hanging freely by her shoulders.

"How long have I been unconscious?" I demanded, ignoring all the rules of social conduct my mom had taught me.

"Two and a half weeks." She paused. "Chiron said that we had to give your body time to heal. He said it was a miracle that you had even survived the first attack, let alone actually defeated the Behemoth."

"Behemoth? That's what that thing was? Here was me thinking that it was a subterranean escaped rhino. Well, shows how wrong assumptions can be. " Ever the flirt, I winked at her, eliciting a wry grin from this intriguing girl. "I'm Artie by the way."

"But you have at a disadvantage. You haven't told me your name yet, or even where I am." I said, wondering whether or not I would actually be able to get her phone number. I'd never really had time for girls back home, but I knew that a lot of girls had liked me back then.

"Chiron said not to tell you about where you are. He said that he should handle it, 'cause he thought that you would need a lot of explaining to. Maybe he thinks that you're complicated. Personally, I just think he reckons you're thick. He normally only has to explain thing to the Ares campers."

That word registered in my mind. I heard of Ares when my school had put on a production of The Iliad. Ares had been the Greek god of war, and had fought on the side of the Trojans.

"Ares campers? What is this? A fricking Greek summer camp? I shouted getting angry this girls evasiveness.

"I've said too much already. Drink your Nectar, and eat your ambrosia. It'll make you feel much better." She turned and walked towards the door. At the last second, she turned around and said, "Oh by the way, my name's Katrina." With that, she disappeared through the door.

I turned my attention the tray besides me. I picked up the glass, inherently distrustful of the taste of anything that "made you feel better." I took a cautious sip, and nearly recoiled in surprise. It tasted like Spaghetti Bolognese, just the way my mom had always made it when I was a kid, with too much garlic and a slightly smoked quality where it had cooked for too long. _My favorite dish_, I thought, stupidly. I quickly finished the Nectar, and chewed on the ambrosia. For a moment nothing happened. Then, my body grew very warm, as I felt the bones in my leg coalesce back together. The aches and twinges in my body seemed to disappear as the warmth touched them. As it reached my chest, a heard a scarcely audible, but very disturbing crunch as my third left rib snapped back into its propped position.

I felt exhausted. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep.

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When I awoke again, I was accompanied by the man in a wheelchair. I sprang to my feet, and said "So I assume that you're Chiron, right? Just like the Boatman of the dead?"

"That's Charon. I'm Chiron, the centaur." With that, he turned into a centaur, his hindquarters extending out of the back of his wheel chair.

"Hell! You could have bloody warned me!" I realized that I had actually jumped backwards over the bed. "Now, will you please explain to me what the hell is going on here?" I asked, a little testier then normal.

He nodded gravely. "One of your parents was a God. An Olympian God, to be precise. What I can't understand is why the Satyr's didn't find you. We have a presence in almost every school in the country, trained to investigate any child diagnosed with dyslexia or ADHD. You're a powerful half blood, that much is clear from the way you fought the Behemoth, but you past unnoticed by them."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. You're saying that my father was a God?" Chiron nodded. "A Greek god?" Another nod from the centaur. "And the Greek god's exist, and like to have kids with mortal women? Some things never change." I said, slightly bitterly.

"Exactly. Now, your father, whoever he is, fathered you, and left you with your mother to be raised, until you could make your way to here, Camp Half Blood."

"Wait a second. Did you say I was at Camp Half blood?" I asked surprised at the fact I was actually where my mom had wanted me to reach. I had succeeded.

We talked for over an hour, about the camp, how I would have to live, about what being a half blood meant for me, but to be honest, I didn't really care. For the first time since my mothers' death, I felt like I was home.

**So what did you think? Seriously, I'd love to know, whether it's compliments, concrit, or even just you saying hi! Annabeth hugs to all those who review!**


	5. Where I learn and fight

**Big thanks to the wonderful: Ellen 26, pshhhh yeahh, The Minotaur and meiscool2! You all get Annabeth Hugs for reviewing (Ellen 26 gets special mention for the awesome advice on my characters.)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, nothing related to PJO, anyway.**

I'd been billeted to Hermes cabin, and was being walked over there by a pair of boys about my own age, called Zane and Daniel. We passed a lot of cabins, several of which seemed empty. I asked why the camp would bother having so many cabins and leave them empty, especially since it turned out that Hermes cabin was practically packed to bursting.

They explained how the cabin's were the property of the god's, and only that god's children stayed in their cabin. He also explained why some were completely empty. Obviously, Artemis and Hera wouldn't have kids, being the Goddesses of Virginity and marriage respectively, but it turns out that Zeus, Poseidon and Hades had sworn an oath several years ago to never have any more children. Dan explained how the three of them were so powerful that their kids kept screwing up the destiny of the human race, putting too much power in the hands of mortal half-bloods.

"But the thing is, don't tell anyone I told you this, but I heard that one of the satyrs has a lead on finding a daughter of Zeus. Trust me, it's not good." Zane whispered to me as we passed a sky blue cabin.

The word satyrs caught my attention. "What are satyrs? Chiron said that one of them should have found me, but I have no idea what they are." I said, all at a rush.

"Well that's the multimillion dollar question isn't it? Any kid powerful to kill a behemoth has to be a child of one of the major gods, but the satyr's check every kid in the country with dyslexia and ADHD. They should have spotted you." He saw my quizzical look and added "They can sense power, you see."

"Wait a second. I don't have dyslexia or ADHD." The two boys looked astonished. "Well, not officially anyway. I never told anyone about it, 'cause I didn't want to be held back. I basically just studied my ass off, and worked on improving my concentration. I do apparently have OCD, though." Astonishment seemed to contort into a bizarre mix of horror and laughter.

"You Prat! It's a natural thing and part of your heritage! You have dyslexia because your brain is programmed for ancient Greek, rather then Latin script. And ADHD is just your battlefield reflexes. Your body responds to stimuli faster then most humans. The OCD is probably your own problem though, I've never heard of that in a half blood before." Zane half yelled, half guffawed.

"Whoa…this is some pretty heavy stuff to deal with. It's like my entire perception of reality has been called into question." I paused for impact, and then suddenly changed tack. "Oh well. Let's talk about girls instead. One girl in particular, a girl called Katrina. She has bright blue hair and green eyes. What can you tell me about her? Starting with: Does she have a boyfriend?"

"Katrina? Oh, you mean Katrina Serton! Well, no boyfriend. I doubt anyone could keep up with her, she's kinda manic. She's been here all her life, got claimed by Demeter last year. She's actually the only member of Demeter cabin that can actually fight. But you'll see that tomorrow."

"Why?" I asked, apprehensively. "What's happening tomorrow?"

"Well, Hermes cabin has sword practice with the Aphrodite, Ares and Demeter cabins. She'll probably be there beating on the whole of the Aphrodite cabin." He saw the look on my face, a mixture of amazement and incredulousness. "Yeah, Trust me, I saw her take down all 11 campers in the Aphrodite cabin once."

"Wait a second. I don't have a sword. Do I get given one?" I asked. _This seems to be becoming a theme. _I thought_ I wish these kids would stop assuming that I know about these things._

The other two boys recoiled in shock. "Wait a second. How did you kill a Behemoth without a sword? We just assumed that you'd found one on your journey, or been given it by your human parent."

It was a good feeling to have perplexed them for a change. I reached for my bag, which was by my feet and pulled out my staff. I realized that someone had cleaned it while I was asleep, removing the behemoths blood from the surface, and probably given it a polish as well.

"I used this staff. Chiron gave it to me when I was younger. I didn't know he was Chiron at the time though." I said, raking in the admiration that the guys were sending me.

Zane grabbed the staff, and held it to the light, turning it in odd ways, trying to examine it. "Zane, is that what I think it is?" Dan said, in a very low tone. "Yeah. Hespirides wood. The only substance besides Celestial bronze that affects monsters. Uncuttable, undentable, light as a feather." He turned to me. "This is one pretty awesome weapon. You should use it in sword practice tomorrow."

The conversation turned to other, more trivial matters. It turned out that Zane had a very successful side business smuggling mortal food into the camp. He lifted up a floor board under his bed and produced a 6 pack of Lemonade, while Dan produced a deck of cards. We played and drank for hours, just a group of teenagers having fun.

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I woke up the next day with the rest of Hermes cabin, and strolled down to the sword fighting arena, my hair combed back with liberal amounts of water, wearing a Thin leather Jacket over a plain sleeveless t-shirt, my staff held in a belt loop on my jeans tight enough to stop it falling out, but loose enough for me to remove it without too much hassle.

Chiron was waiting by the swords arena and eyed the staff, before saying: "Right, we're going to split off into pairs for the next few minutes, and do some free style sparring, just to see how you're all shaping up. Come over to me, and I'll pair you up. Multiple on one challenges are fine, as long as all parties consent.

I walked over to Chiron, eyeing my classmates nervously, wondering who I would be paired with. The other campers seemed unsure of me as well. They seemed undetermined as to whether I was a good fighter, or lucky in killing the behemoth.

"Ahh, Artie…I think I'll pair you with… Stevie Barnes. Come here Stevie." A girl about three years older then I and a foot taller then I came over. I eyed the sword on her belt. It was at least a foot longer then my staff. I'd have to get in close to do any real damage.

We lined up and began circling. My hand strayed to the edge of my staff; she went for her sword, bringing it down in an overhead strike that would have decapitated me if I hadn't moved to the side. I pulled the staff free and managed to bring it up in time to block her next strike, a two handed swing aimed at my midsection. I tried to slip through her guard while her sword was low, but she parried me easily.

We began to fall into a rhythm, of her attacking with blow after blow, while I rolled, dodged and blocked her expertly timed blows. I was getting tired from moving constantly, and getting sloppy because of it. I knew it was only a matter of time before she got me, and she knew it too. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Zane and Daniel double teaming against a group of seven other campers. As predicted, Katrina was holding her own against five of the Aphrodite cabin members. Then, the endless assault picked up again, and my attention was focused purely on the girl who seemed like she was trying to kill me.

Suddenly, Stevie went for a head strike, her blade moving at ridiculous speed. I went to block but my body tensed, causing the stick to pass low. At the same time, she changed the direction of her strike, aiming it at my body. It had been a faint! Our weapons collided and a look of shock betrayed Stevie's face. I realized that I had trapped her sword by her side, and on impulse, span on my left foot, away from the sword, striking her face, first with my elbow, then with my staff.

She dropped to the floor under the impact. I looked around and realized that everyone had been watching our fight for some time. I stepped forward, and helped her to her feet. Her face was swelling where I had hit her.

"Are you alright? I didn't mean to hit you that hard." I asked.

She spat blood into the ground and said "I'm fine. Good fight kid. But I'll get you next time."

I extended my hand to her, and said "Not if I have anything to say about that."

Chiron pulled me away, and asked how I had known that Stevie had been feinting. I explained how it had been a happy accident, how my body had tensed up at just the right moment.

"Interesting." He muttered, "Interesting. I wonder…" He tailed off and called an end to the class, sending us back to our cabins.

**Well? Do you agree with Chiron? Is it interesting? Do you wonder? Review, and ask questions. I'll answer ONE reviewers question, so be careful what you ask. **

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	6. Where I get beat down

**Thanks for the reviews people! That's: pshhhh yeahh, Ellen 26, meiscool2, music5692, BlazePheonix, reviewer, Olympianchef 213 and the Minotaur.**

**Disclaimer: Despite all my clever schemes, I still do not own PJO.**

My experience in the sword fighting arena had opened up a whole new level of interest in me. A lot more people were talking to me now, trying to persuade me that should be part of their circle of friends.

For a kid who spent most of his life indoors, reading textbooks until he couldn't see straight, this was pretty unnerving.

But by far the most disturbing thing was the discovery of the "half-blood pools." Zane explained to me that some of the guys in Hermes cabin ran a betting system, where they would offer odds on any new campers parentage, as well as odds on sword fights, capture the flag games, anything they could think of. I figured that was pretty amusing and resolved to put twenty dollars on a random god just on the off chance.

I didn't expect to be confronted with a line three times the length of Hermes cabin, and a board saying:

_VOTE ON ARTIE'S PARENTAGE!_

_The house offers the following odds on Artie Callin's parentage_

_Zeus: 500 to one against_

_Poseidon: 700 to one against_

_Hades: 1400 to one against_

_Athena: 19 to one against_

_Apollo: 15 to one against_

_Hephaestus: 17 to one against_

_Hera: 7,000,000 to one against_

_Demeter: 45 to one against_

_Dionysus: 67 to one against_

_Aphrodite: 23 to one against_

_Ares: 7 to one against _

_Artemis: 479,000,000,000 to one against_

_The house will also accept bets placed on minor gods. For a full list of the odds of minor gods, please collect a pamphlet from the desk._

I'd never realized that I was this interesting. But then I realized that these kids were just looking to make a quick buck, and felt sick to my stomach. I turned and ran, fast as I could. I wasn't sure where I was running, and had no intention of stopping until I collided with someone.

We both wound up on the floor, limbs tangled together. It took me a moment to process what had just happened, before the person I'd just crashed into said "You know, If we don't get up soon, someone's going to see us and draw a very saucy conclusion." I recognized the voice, and looked up towards her, praying desperately that it wouldn't be who I thought it was.

It was.

"Hey Katrina, How you doing?" I asked nervously as I got to my feet.

"I was just fine before you decided to tackle me to the floor." She shook her head. "Still, no harm done. Mind telling me what got you so spooked?"

I was unsure of what to tell her. After all, it seemed a bit of an over reaction now I thought about it. So a few kids, well half the camp, were betting on me. It wasn't as if they were planning my grizzly death. I plonked my butt on the wet earth of the forest, and said "I guess I'm just not used to things moving so fast."

She saw the expression on my face and replied kindly "You saw the betting pool didn't you?" I nodded, unsure of what to say. In the end, I just asked "Is it always this big? Do all half bloods get so many people voting on them? I mean, what have I done to be that interesting?"

"What have you done? Let me think now, you made it to Half blood hill without any help whatsoever, you killed a behemoth with a CD and a stick and yesterday, you took down the best swordswoman in the whole of Ares cabin." Katrina looked like she was struggling to keep a straight face.

"So what were you doing down here?" I asked, somewhat rudely, but I couldn't help myself.

"I was planting bulbs. I'm a daughter of Demeter. I'm supposed to make things grow." She replied. "Anyway. I have to go, so I'll see you tonight."

"What? What's happening tonight?" I asked. _Typical. I'm back to being clueless again._

"Capture the flag, dummy!" And with that, she was gone.

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Later that night, I was strapping on a suit of body armor in Hermes cabin, making sure that I could still easily get to my staff, held in my beltloop again, before heading down to the forest to join the other half bloods. Dan whispered in my ear the teams "It's Athena against Ares, like normal. Apollo and hermes cabin have lined up behind the Athena like normal. The rest are backing Ares. We thought that we'd managed to get Demeter cabin on side, but then Ares offered to do all of Demeter's chores for a week, so they switched at the last second."

I heard Chiron shouting out the rules and regulations of the contest, and the signal the beginning of the contest. The two teams split and ran to the opposite ends of the forest.

A girl from the Athena cabin said "Okay, I'm gonna take offence, Zane and Dan, you take Defence. Assemble your forces and get ready. Now, my troops, follow me." Just under half the team left and started following her to the other teams flag.

Zane and Dan started barking orders, organizing us into defensive formations, Dragging logs and boulders into strategic locations for the Archers of Apollo's cabin to hide behind.

Then, without warning, the first enemy wave was upon us. A group of boys, maybe seven or eight, all big and burly, came rushing towards us: the Hephaestus boys had taken the first assault, Dan, myself and about five other campers rushed to meet them. I found myself up against a boy who was at least a foot taller then me, and maybe two foot broader. He swung his weapon, an Axe with a vicious looking point on it towards me. I rolled past it and smashed my staff into his knee. He stumbled, and I shoulder tackled him, using his own weight against him. He went down like a sack of spuds. I turned to find my next opponent, only to see that only three were still standing, and they were all retreating.

It took a little time before the second wave arrived, and we were all a little off a guard. So, when the girls of Aphrodite cabin started to move towards us, we were entranced. I'm fairly certain that if there hadn't been a few of Athena's daughters on defence with us, we'd have been done for, 'cause those girls could have walked straight past us and got the flag, the only danger to them being the pools of drool that we were leaving on the floor.

The final assault was a combined attack. About thirty campers must have charged us, and there were only twenty of us on defense. Fortunately, the archers were able to pin about a third of them to the trees, evening the odds a little.

We met them head on. Swords clashed as we fought. Unlike when we had fought the Hephaestus boys, this wasn't a one on one thing. It was a free for all, with everyone desperately fending off attacks from at least four others.

Gradually, the numbers were whittled down as people were knocked out or taken down.

We were all running on adrenalin at this point, barely holding on. Eventually, the combatants had mostly fallen, leaving only Stevie Barnes on the attacking side, and Zane, Dan and I on the defending side. I turned to help Zane and Dan take her out when something hit from behind,

I hit the floor hard, spinning as I landed. I looked up to see what had hit me, and found I was looking up at the one person I'd been afraid of fighting. Katrina.

A flaming arrow flared blue above the forest. That had been the signal that are attackers had captured the flag and were taking it to the boundary. That meant that I just had to hold Katrina off for just a few more minutes while our team got it to the boundary creek.

Katrina was holding a short sword, not broad like most, but shaped more like a katana. She ran forward towards me and began to attack. She was fast, and far more precise then Stevie had been. To make matters worse, I was exhausted, while she hd been waiting to attack, ready to mop up the survivors of her teams assault.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Zane and Dan take Stevie down with a tree branch and a lot of luck. They both rushed to help me. In one seamless motion, Katrina managed to push me backwards into a tree and rip something off her belt and throw at Dan. It caught his armor and pinned him, spreading wires that wrapped around him, locking his arms in place. Then when Zane was up close, he leaped for her. She deftly sidestepped him and caught his head by the hair, before punching him very hard in the groin. He let out a sort of strangled cry and collapsed to the ground.

By now, I was back on my feet and fighting. It wasn't going well. She seemed to know exactly how I was going to strike and when. For maybe five minutes I held my own, as I was forced steadily backwards under her constant barrage of thrusts, swipes and slashes. Finally, she got the better of me and knocked the staff out of my hands, causing it to drop by my feet. I looked down to pick it up.

Big mistake.

Katrina brought her knee up under my chin, snapping by head upwards and throwing me backwards. I landed badly, barely conscious, as Katrina moved to take the final blow against me. Then, all of a sudden, the sky was lit with a flare of green. That meant that my team had got the flag across the boundary line.

Katrina helped to my feet and said "You put up a good fight, Artie. But not good enough."

I laughed and replied "Yeah, but whose team just won?"

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After Capture the flag, there was a feast. Zane explained that it was customary to sacrifice a portion of the meal to the gods. So, I grabbed a steak and some fries, and through them into the sacrificial Brazier. _To all the gods, but especially my father, whoever you are, _I thought.

I wasn't prepared for what happened next. There was a rumble of thunder and a flash of light, before a small, three-dimensional, holographic sun appeared above my head.

Chiron stood up and said "Apollo. Giver of prophecies, driver of the sun chariot, god of archers, poets and healers. Hail Arthur Callin, Child of the Sun.

**I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Seriously, I've been looking forward to this scene since I started writing this fic. It was fun to have artie get his butt handed to him for a change. But I'm begging you here, please review. Same offer as last time, one reviewer will get an answer to the questions they ask in their review!**


	7. Where dreams and lives change

**Okay, kudos to my reviewers, Ellen 26, the Minotaur, Music5692, pshhhh yeahh and meiscool2. Also to Qoheleth for the advice and amusing discussion. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson, then an anvil would fall on Rachel's head at the end of BOTL. Since this sadly didn't happen, we can safely surmise that I do not own Percy Jackson.**

I stared up at the sun hovering above my head, marveling at the detail of it. While from the distance it looked like a traditional representation of a sun, Orangey-yellow with eight spikes diverging away from the central orb, when you looked at it closer, you could see minute sunspots and little solar flares erupting across its surface. Barely fifty seconds after it had appeared, the small sun disintegrated, disappearing as if someone had hooked it up to a lightbulb switch.

All of a sudden, the camp erupted into a hive of activity. People were shouting and laughing and handing over money. _The results of the betting pool_ I thought bitterly.

Then I noticed that four boys from the Apollo cabin had come over to the hermes table to speak with me. This threw me, because I knew that only members of a cabin could go to their own cabins table during meals. Then suddenly I realized, I was in the wrong place. Apollo had claimed me as his own, and that meant no more sitting at the Hermes table. I also realized that meant that I wouldn't have to share a room with Zane anymore. (Great guy, but his digestion must be bad for his farts to smell _that_ bad.)

I bid goodbye to my friends in the Hermes cabin, and allowed my siblings (brothers seemed too close a word for a group of people that I barely new) steer me towards the Apollo table. I spent the next hour being introduced to people from Apollo cabin, fending off question after question about myself and my life, most of which seemed to revolve around archery and listening to one kids complaints about how if I had been Hephaestus's kid, he would have been $150 up.

Eventually, it was time to go to sleep. I ran to the Hermes cabin to get my stuff and found Dan sitting on my bed, my possessions already packed into a largish rucksack. They passed it to me and said. "Congrats on getting claimed Artie. Apollo's a good respected cabin, you'll do fine there." Dan paused for breath, while Zane continued: "We just want you to know that you'll always be welcome here in Hermes cabin, and that you'll always be our mate, 'kay?" I noticed that Zane's voice was still quite pained, and almost certainly higher then normal. Obviously, Katrina's groin-punch was still troubling him. I made a mental note never to get on her bad side. "Thanks guys. Don't worry, you two will always be my mates too, deal?" We shook hands, and exchanged high fives, being of course far too macho to hug.

I turned and left the cabin, and began trudging slowly towards my new home, when a voice sounded behind me. "OI! Callin! Wait up!" I turned to see who it was, and saw that Katrina was chasing up from behind me, holding something large and grey in her arms.

"Hey Kat, how you doing?" I asked, trying to see what it was that she was holding. "I'm fine, thanks. I just wanted to say congratulations I guess, and I wanted to give you this." She handed me the thing she was holding. Once it was in my hands I realized that it was some kind of armored breast plate. The straps on it were ornate, and decorated with tiny little symbols, including suns, doves, lightning bolts, flowers and tridents. _All the Olympian symbols,_ I thought.

"Wow. This thing is great. Where did you get it?" I asked, gazing in wonder at the craftsmanship that had gone into it.

"It's made from a behemoth's scale, the one that you wrenched off the behemoth that attacked you. Severing it made it a spoil of battle, so it didn't fade like the rest of the monster. I picked it up and got one of Hephaestus's son's do me a favour and make it into a breast plate. I was gonna wait until your birthday to give it to you, but well, this seemed more appropriate." She looked me in the eye, and I said. "Thanks. This is really special…"

"Well hey, you're the only kid in camp outside of the Ares and Athena cabin who can actually fight close to my level, so I figure if I want a sparring partner, I'd better keep him interested." She smiled and winked at me, before running off to her sisters.

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The next week was one of the most boring in my life. My siblings took it upon themselves to teach me archery, and poetry and healing, as well as the importance of sunbathing.

I was a fair archer, but nowhere near the standard of my siblings. I could hit the target, and could sometimes hit the bulls eye, but none of the bows really felt right in my hands. I tried Saracen bows, English Longbows, short bows, I even tried a crossbow, ignoring the snorts of derision directed at me. (I later learned that crossbows were considered an inferior weapon by the Apollo campers) But nothing seemed right in my hands, and I was nowhere near as interested in archery as I was with short range combat. Unfortunately, Archery practice cut the time I had for that to marginal at best.

Poetry was even worse. Because I had spent so much time focusing on my studies, I had never actually bothered reading poetry in all my life. The closest I had ever got was listening to music. Of course, this didn't stop my siblings forcing me to read poem after poem, and trying to get me to write sonnets or haikus or limericks. Eventually, I got so bored of it, I started plagirising rap lyrics that I knew in the vain hope that my tormentors wouldn't notice.

Healing, on the other hand was fascinating. Every morning I would read books on natural cures and supernatural diseases. I would learn which herbs could be used to induce sleep, or act as a natural antibiotic. I didn't know quite why it I was so into this subject, besides my vague, unsubstantiated desire to be a doctor when I grew up. I just figured it was hardly the worst thing to become obsessed with.

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Exactly a week after being claimed, everything changed. During the night, I was dreaming. What I was dreaming about was well, you don't really need to know. Because just when the dream was getting to the really good bit, the scene shifted dramatically.

_I found myself in an attic full of junk. All sorts of trophies and memorabilia were scattered around, bearing signs that said things like "Original Aeolian wind bag" and "Hydra Head number 1, Woodstock"_

_I saw sitting in the centre of the room a small mumy like being. It looked like it would snap in half at the slightest touch. I approached it carefully, and cleared my throat. _

_The thing turned and said in a raspy, grating voice: "I am the Delphic Oracle, speaker of Prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty python. Approach seeker, and ask."_

"_Why am I here?" I found myself asking on impulse. _

_Suddenly, the dream seemed to distort for a second, like a TV with bad reception. Then this thing, this oracle spoke._

"_Two shall go north and retrieve the Cross that was lost._

_And a third shall pay a terrible cost._

_The Compulsive son and the Gardening fighter._

_Only with perseverance will the day turn brighter._

_You will save a life and fight a foe._

_The quest will turn on decisions made long ago._

_What you seek you shall recover._

_But you will cause the devastation of a brother."_

_The scene began to break into pieces, as if it was made of lego bricks that were shaking apart._

Suddenly, I was awake. My siblings were standing around my bed, looking terrified.

"Artie! Are you okay? You were screaming in your sleep, muttering random words in ancient Greek. We thought you were having some kind of seizure or something," The eldest girl in the cabin said.

"I need to see Chiron!" I shouted, and threw myself out of bed and pulled on a shirt and trousers, before running towards the big house.

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"The Oracle is failing. If she dies…" Chiron was yelling at someone inside the big house.

"Oh what a shame it would be if the brats would have to do their quests without prophecies. Maybe I'd have a lot less of them to deal with." A man said, whose voice I didn't know.

Deciding that I had heard enough, I burst in and yelled "CHIRON! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!"

Suddenly, vines were wrapping their way around my body, pinning me to the wall.

I looked down at the man pointing at me. He looked like an alcoholic that had gone without booze for several months.

"Aaah, Artie, this is Mr D, the camp director. Mr D, this is Artie Callin, a son of Apollo." Chiron said, stifling laughter at my predicament.

"So they don't even bother knocking these days huh? Just barge in uninvited. Heroes." He said with disdain, spitting into the ground as if the word _Heroes _was distasteful to him.

"What do you have to say Arthur? I would implore you, make it worthwhile. Mr D has a habit of turning those he dislikes into dolphins when he is riled."

I explained my dream to Chiron and this "Mr D" and watched as their faces alternated between astonishment, wonder, and in Mr D's case, sheer boredom.

"The oracle spoke to him in a dream. Not only that, but she gave him a prophecy. This is a clear sign. He must undertake a quest."

"A quest for what though? A cross that was lost? What could that be that might possibly save the oracle?" Mr D mused, evidently tired of this whole affair.

"I do not know. I shall have to research this overnight. Arthur, go to bed and get some rest. I shall see you in the morning. We shall have to discuss this quest further. Now, Mr D, if you'd be kind enough to let the boy down." I nodded my head in agreement.

Tactical Error. Mr D snapped his fingers, and the vines holding me in place disappeared. With no vines holding me in place, I plummeted to the ground, hard.

"I hate you." I mumbled to Mr D as I left.

"I know Arnie Cattin."

**Love it? Hate it? Tell me in a review. As usual, there will be one question answered to one reviewer, so ask good questions, and get good answers. See you next time on "Child of the Sun"**


	8. Where I accept a quest and a gift

**Thank you to olympianchef213, music5692, meiscool2 and of course, the epic Ellen 26, for reviewing.**

**Disclaimer: Seriously people, If you haven't figured out that I don't own this yet, then you need help. I also don't own Doctor who. I do own Artie's Shirt though.**

I woke up from a deep (and thankfully prophecy free) sleep, and stumbled towards Apollo cabin's male wardrobe. It was one of those walk in ones, with a section for each of the guys in the cabin. By a peculiar trick of the god's, it was actually far larger on the inside then it was on the outside, which made me think of something from an old British TV series called Doctor Who, that my pen pal had once sent me over the internet.

I looked towards my section, which was virtually bare apart from a few T-shirts and a jacket, most of my stuff was still in my rucksack, (I detest unpacking.) I reached down and pulled a pair of extra thick black denim trousers and plain white vest on. Over the vest, I threw on my favorite shirt, a thick cotton Army shirt that I'd decorated on the back with patches of bands I liked, like Biffy Clyro, Panic At The Disco and Paramore.

I walked towards the big house in a hurry, eating a slice of toast as I went. Suddenly, something charged into me and I almost choked on my toast as it went down my windpipe. After I had finished coughing the crumbs out my lungs, I looked at the blue haired girl that had collided with me. "You know, Kat, this is becoming a theme. You'd think we'd learn to look where both going, eh?"

"Very funny. Chiron told me to find you and bring you to the big house. He said that he had something to tell us both. And don't call me Kat." She shot back.

"I was just heading there now. And what's wrong with Kat? Would you prefer Kittie? Or Kate? Or Katie?" Then I saw the expression on her face, and remembered Zane's higher voice. "Right, shutting up now."

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Katrina wasn't kidding when she said that Chiron had something to say. I swear, that centaur could talk his own hind legs off!

"Artie, Katrina, I've called you here because of two things. The first is that a month ago, the Oracle was attacked, and has been unable to give prophecies since. It seems likely that she will die within two months if she is not treated, and then no quests will be able to go ahead. The second is that last night, the Oracle reached out to you and gave you a prophecy through the medium of your dreams. It mentioned a "Cross that was lost." I've spent all night researching it, and there's only one thing it could be." He paused for impact. "The Hellfire cross."

I looked at Katrina for some kind of explanation, but she seemed as clueless for me. Seeing our blank looks, Chiron continued. "The Hellfire cross is one of the most obscure pieces of Greek mythology. It is not mentioned in the Iliad or the odyssey, Virgil and Homer knew not if it. Only the God's themselves knew of it, and amongst them it largely forgotten. It was a cross, the size of a hand, of pure celestial bronze. Conceived of by Apollo, shaped by Hephaestus, imbibed with the powers of the ocean and Lightning by Poseidon and Zeus, it is the most effective healing tool in existence. If there is even a spark of life in an individual, it shall restore full health in that individual. It alone can save the Oracle."

Then Katrina piped up. "Hey Chiron, I get why Artie's here, it's his prophecy, but why me? Where do I fit into all this?"

"The prophecy mentioned that a "Gardening Fighter" would undertake this quest as well as Artie, who we assume is the "obsessive son." In prophecies, the Gardening Title always refers to a child of Demeter. And you are the only member of Demeter cabin who enjoys or succeeds in combat. It must be you." Chiron replied.

"So let me get this straight. Katrina and I have to find an item that has been lost for centuries, bring it back here, and use it to save the Oracle within 2 months, fighting demons, monsters and Zeus know what else. Do we even have any idea where this Cross is? The prophecy said to go north, but that doesn't really narrow it down much." I said, rather indignantly.

"Well, we do have one clue. It is said that there is a trail to the resting place of the Cross, and several markers along the way. Each one will bring you closer to the cross. I also know that the first marker is in Manhattan, on the side of a building. I will give you the address for it. Should you choose to accept the quest, our security chief Argus will take you to the edge of Manhattan. From there you will be on your own, until you find the cross. After that, the Gods can intervene and take the cross to the camp." Chiron said, surprised at my impudence.

"Of course we're accepting the quest." Katrina yelled. Chiron looked at me quizzically and I looked down. "Sure. Why not?" I said, sounding far braver then I actually was.

"Excellent." Chiron beamed. "Now, all you need to do is choose your third member. Every quest has three members." He explained.

"No." I replied.

"What do you mean no?"

"It means no third member. You heard the prophecy, "A third shall pay a terrible cost." I'm not bringing a third member into this." I said, my words hollow. The oracle's last line echoed in my head "_Still you will fail yet another."_

Chiron sighed. "Then go pack. I will see you at 1:00 pm to see you off.

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At One' o'clock, Katrina and I were ready, both of us carrying rucksacks with plenty of clothes, water and food, as well as supplies of Ambrosia and Nectar. I also packed some more traditional first aid equipment, like bandages and antiseptic.

"Ahh, you're here. All ready to go, good, good. Just so I don't worry, what are you carrying, in terms of weapons?" Chiron asked.

"Well, I've got my sword, which folds up into my bag and appears on my belt when I whisper my mothers name, as well as a shuriken that sprouts long vines that hold an enemy in place." Katrina said, before pulling out what looked like a small gardening sickle. She shook it slightly, two more sickles shot out at angles of 120 degrees, turning it into a shuriken.

"Excellent. And you Artie?" Chiron asked, looking relieved.

"I'm just packing my staff. I'll keep it in my belt loop, like normal."

"Di immortals! I forgot to tell you about you staff!" Chiron yelled. "It can transform into a bow, by whispering your fathers name to it. Here, take this." He handed me a small pouch, which had a clip that fit my trousers well.

"That pouch will hold your staff, even though it looks far too small. It will only be removed from your trousers when you wish it too. When the Staff transforms into a bow, it will transform into a quiver, full of celestial bronze arrows." Chiron said.

I picked up my staff and brought it towards my mouth, before whispering _"Apollo"_ to it.

Suddenly, it began to lengthen and twist in my hand. Its handle seemed perfectly crafted for my grip; it was perfectly balanced as well. I reached for the newly formed quiver on my belt, and plucked out an arrow. I notched up the arrow, and aimed it at the bulls eye of a target, over five hundred yards away. I pulled the string back to my cheek, and let it go.

The arrow flew true, hitting the target dead centre.

"Now, unless there is anything else, you had best be on your way. Good luck, children. May the God's be with you." Chiron said.

**I know this chapter was probably a bit boring, and short, but I needed to get all this stuff out the way. Things will pick up in the next chapter. PLEASE REVIEW! As usual, one question will be answered, so ask wisely.**


	9. Where I walk and talk

**Sorry this is late guys. I hit a writers block, and I've only just overcome it.**

**First things first: Thank you to FantasyFan WriterGirl, demetersdaughter, creamsoda92, meiscool2 and, of course, Ellen 26 (whose constant nagging ;-) made sure I got this chapter out)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I claim to own, Percy Jackson and the olympians. or Al Gore. Or the Green party.**

**Now, without further ado, is Child of the Sun, chapter 9.**

The ride into Manhattan was a silent one. Argus, the camp security guard, might have been a stand up bloke, but he's a terrible conversationalist. For some reason, Kat, sorry, Katrina, was more preoccupied checking her gear, over and over and over and over. It made me start wondering whether or not she was the one with OCD. I decided to ask her about it.

"Hey Kat, what's with the constant equipment checks? That's my gig." I asked jovially.

"Firstly, Don't call me Kat, and secondly, I was just double checking we had everything. I don't wanna be half way up a mountain and find we have no rope." A slight tone of anger crept into her voice.

"Hey, sure thing Kat." I said, regretting the words the second they left my mouth.

" Don't call me Kat!" she screamed, so loud and high pitched that I felt my eardrums shake with agony.

She reached for the throwing sickle on her belt, and prepared to throw it at me. As she brought it back to throw it at me, we both suddenly caught sight of Argus. Every square inch of his body had erupted into eyes, all of which were angrily glaring at the two of us. Wordlessly, effortlessly, Argus had defused the situation, shocking us into a sullen silence for the rest of the journey.

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After we had exited the cab Argus had driven us in, Katrina pulled out a map that Chiron had written directions on, in order to lead us to the first clue.

"So what did the pony tell us to do?" I asked, while frantically trying to work out a cramp in my left leg. Seriously, long journeys sitting still do not agree with any half blood.

"Well, according to the map, we take a left turn at the Empire state and then…" she trailed off, and her expression turned to horror.

"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked, fearing hideous dangers.

"We have to get in a cab, and ask him to take us to second street. Then we have to enter the third building on the left side of the street." She said, her voice in pain, as if the idea was physically damaging to her.

"That's it?" I screamed. "What the hell is the matter with you? You looked like Chiron had written _sacrifice a baby by the light of a full moon."_

Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. But I hardly think I deserved what happened next.

Her left boot flew into the side of my ribs, bending me over. She then grabbed my head by the hair and pulled me up by it, straining the roots. "Do you know what damage taxi's do to the world's ecosystem? The gases they spit out are poisoning our streams, killing the wildlife and they are…" she began yelling at me, like the most animated Al Gore worshipper this side of the Green party.

"Okay, okay, we'll walk." I said, causing her to let go of me. I rubbed my scalp and shot her a dirty look. Unfortunately, she seemed oblivious, because the idea of us not having to take a cab had cheered her up dramatically.

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As we walked, we swapped jokes, trying to distract ourselves from the fact that ourselves from the grim fate that might await us in the quest. In any case, I was eager to avoid another freak out. Kat had way too much anger for me to risk angering her like that. Call me a coward if you will, but I like to avoid fights that I don't need to fight.

Suddenly she piped up "Why are you counting?"

I looked at her puzzled, as if to say, _what are you talking about?_ Then I did say it.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're counting your steps while we walk. I can see you counting them on your fingers as we walk." She said, while walking.

I looked down at my hand, sure enough, I was counting the steps, without even thinkng about it.

"Well wadda ya know?" I drawled, quite astonished. "Chalk one more up to OCD I guess"

"So do you know how many steps it's been since we started walking?" Katrina asked.

I went to shake my head, but instead, "3009" burst out from my lips.

"Whoa! Where the frick did that come from?" I exclaimed.

"Wait. You don't know, but you knew. That is so screwed up." Katrina shot back, but I could tell it was meant as a joke, not a barb. I sent her a look of mock-indignation, then carried on walking, completing the rest of the journey in silence.

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Chiron had described the building as the "third building on the left side of second street." Had he described it as "the building that holds the record for the most simultaneous building code violations at any one time," we might have found it a little faster.

I mean, the place was a wreck. Everything about it was falling apart. The chimneys were ramshackle, the walls looked like they had given up their fight with gravity, and were just waiting to be defeated. The windows had long since disappeared, only the barest remnants of glass remaining in the empty frames.

"What a dump. I can't believe that things still standing." I said, letting out a long whistle to emphasize my point.

"You read my mind. Come on, lets get inside. We need to find this clue and get out."

"Deal" I said, somewhat grimly.

As we approached the building, a large, hulking figure, wrapped in a cloak ran out, screaming. It was the most ungodly sound I had ever heard, like the sound of a thousand babies screaming. As the figure approached, I saw it's face. A single, calf brown eye was set in the middle of its forehead. A Cyclops! And it was coming straight at me! I reached for my staff and pulled it loose, ready to defend myself against this monster.

But it ran straight passed me, never stopping, barely even noticing that I was there. I turned to watch it leave, it's back was ripped to shreds, bleeding profusely. All it wanted to do was put as much distance between it, and that building.

"Kat, that was a Cyclops right?" I asked, shell shocked.

She was obviously shocked too, because for once, she didn't correct my calling her Kat. "Yeah… a baby, by the looks of him, but a Cyclops nonetheless. I'm not looking forward to meeting what can scare a Cyclops that badly." She said, almost breathless.

"I know, but we have to. The camp is depending on us, remember?" I said, trying to sound braver then I really was.

"Yeah, I know. Still…" her voice trailed off.

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We entered the building. However bad it might have looked on the outside, it was much worse on the inside. What looked like 100 years of fecal matter and decay had built up on the floor, drying, hardening into some disgusting layer of filth.

A noise made us both spin around. We saw behind us a monster, with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the face of a human. A sphinx.

"Why have you come here Humans?" the monster hissed, accentuating the syllables of the word _humans, _as if it were the foulest curse she knew.

"We seek the clue to the location of the Hellfire Cross!" I yelled defiantly. "And we will have it!" I added, trying to add force to my suggestion by placing a hand on my staff.

"Only I know the clue to that sacred cross's location. And I will only reveal it if you best me in a game of riddles." She hissed back, decidedly unimpressed with my performance.

"What…what are the terms of defeat?" I asked, fearing I already knew the answer.

"You will feel the force of my bite." She screamed. "Make no mistake, you will lose. None have ever bested me, of all the sphinxes in all the world, only I have never been defeated. Not even Oedipus dared challenge me like he did my sister."

"Yeah, well, Oedipus slept with his Mom so what can you do?" I mused, almost dreamily. I knew I was on thin ice, sphinxes were well known for having terrible tempers. But what could I do? Back out, and let the Oracle die? I hadn't come this far to give up at the first hurdle.

"I accept your challenge."

**Hope it was worth the wait. Please review, and as always, any one question per review will be answered, so ask carefully. And stay ready for the next chapter, when Artie faces a challenge unlike any he's ever faced before, one of the mind.**


	10. Where I riddle to a monsters content

**Ok, pushing out another chapter while I'm still buzzing. So here goes.**

**Thank you to my oh so kind reviewers: FantasyFan-WriterGirl, reborn-fire-bird, spacegirl94, olympianchef213, meiscool2, and Ellen 26. You people ROCK for reviewing.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned PJO, you'd be paying for this. And I don't own any of the riddles used in this chapter, nor the "riddle game" system devised in Tolkien's "the Hobbit"**

I looked defiantly into the sphinx's pitch black eyes, trying desperately to avoid comparing them to an abyss of darkness. _Enough Artie,_ I thought, Y_ou are a son of Apollo. You eat darkness for breakfast._

Katrina came up to me and grabbed me. "Why the hell did you accept? You can't possibly think that you can solve whatever riddle it throws at you."

I held up a hand in a futile attempt to shut her up.

"Katrina?"

She continued yelling, almost incoherently.

"Katrina?" I said slightly louder this time.

More yelling, now reaching a pitch that was almost physically painful. I decided that it was time for desperate action. She'd obviously become hysterical. Something about the idea of me confronting a sphinx was terrifying her.

"KAT! For the love of Zeus, shut the hell up." I screamed, and then winced at the inevitable thunder clash my sentiment had inspired.

Katrina looked like she had been slapped. She was actually gob smacked, she looked like, well, I can't think of a decent comparison, it was such a strange look.

"I have to beat this thing. Otherwise the Oracle will die. And more importantly, I'll die. So I'm going to win." I said, trying desperately to inspire myself, as well as her.

"But, how can you beat the sphinx? She's never been defeated in all her existence." She said.

"Well then, she's overdue." I gave her my trademark lopsided smile and said. "Besides, I did a project on riddles in the 5th grade. I'm sure something will have stuck."

The sphinx screamed, it's howling more inhuman then ever. "If you are quite finished… we have a riddle game to settle."

"Then bring it!" I yelled, psyching myself up like a boxer.

She brought it. Here voice dropped into a much lower register, similar to that of the oracle, but with a darker, crueler edge. It was a voice that suggested _I strangle babies _or _I smoke in maternity wards just to give kids lung cancer._

"_A box without hinges, lock or lid._

_Yet inside me, a golden treasure is hid._

_What am I?"_

I couldn't believe it. She had offered me the simplest riddle in history. I'd learnt it years ago. _How could no-one have beaten her if her riddle is this easy?_

"Well, the answer, quite obviously, is an egg. The _golden treasure_ refers to the yolk." I said, pompously. "Now tell me where the next clue to the Hellfire Cross is!"

She began to laugh tremendously, making the already unstable walls seem to shake.

"You think it's that easy? Foolish mortal, that was but the beginning. This is not a riddle challenge, but a riddle game!" She cried out mockingly.

"What… what's the difference?" I asked, inwardly chastising myself for being so cocky.

"The difference, fool, is that we take turns asking riddles. The game is not won or lost until one of us either cannot think of another riddle, or cannot answer. Now pose your riddle."

_Well, this puts a spanner in the works, doesn't it, _the little sarcastic voice in my head said to me._ To beat her once was bad enough, but to beat her several times, and to stump her, well, you'd better tell_ _Kat what you want on your tombstone._

_No, _another voice said. _You can do this. Now think of a riddle._

Desperately, I searched my mind for a riddle, and said

"I have a mouth, but cannot talk,

I always run, but never walk.

What am I?"

I was pretty pleased with the riddle; it was a hard one, taking me hours to figure out.

The sphinx paused for a second, two seconds, three, four. Then, with careful deliberation she said "River!"

"Correct" I snarled. "Well, go on. What's your riddle?"

"_Voiceless it cries,  
Wingless flutters,  
Toothless bites,  
Mouthless mutters."_

I knew I recognized the riddle. It had been one of the central themes of my project. But what had the theme been? I knew it was something to do with how the older, more classic riddles had almost all been linked to four things. What were they? The seasons? No that wasn't it.

Of course! The elements. That riddle had been one of my four elemental riddles. But which one was it? _C'mon you know this. Remember it. Remember it. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water._

_Toothless bites? Not the earth. Mouthless mutters? Hardly fire. And wingless flutter? The water doesn't flutter. _

_Wind._

_It's wind._

"It's WIND!" I screamed, buoyant with my success.

Ignoring the Sphinxes screams of frustration, I caught sight of Katrina; her hand was resting on her sword, as if she was just waiting to jump in and fight.

I figured it was time to roll out the big guns. It was time for the hardest riddle I had ever encountered. There was no way the sphinx could possibly get this. Not even my English teacher, with a PhD no less, had been able to get this.

"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt  
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.  
It lies behind stars and under hills,  
And empty holes it fills.  
It comes first and follows after,  
Ends life, kills laughter."

I smirked, already picturing the sphinx, howling in her glorious defeat.

Typically enough, she answered in little less than 2 seconds.

"It is darkness that you speak of. I invented that riddle you fool, yet now you seek to use it against me?" She shook her head in disgust.

_Okay._ I thought. _That sucks._

The sphinx spoke.

"_My life can be measured in hours,  
I serve by being devoured.  
Thin, I am quick  
Fat, I am slow  
Wind is my foe._

_What am I?"_

This one was new to me. What was it? Food served by being devoured, but was neither fast nor slow. And what could have the foe of wind? What was prevented, stopped, ended by a puff of air?

And with that image, of a man puffing out air, I knew what it was.

"It's a candle." I said, shocked at how simple it had been.

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For what seemed like hours we went back and forth, swapping riddles. It was exhausting, more so then anything I had ever faced. Every time I came up with a new riddle, the sphinx knew the answer. Always, without fail. Sometimes she answered before I had even finished the first line. And her riddles were getting harder, steadily. There had been a few that I had recognized from my project, which now seemed lifetimes away, but increasingly, I was having to rely on guesswork and cunning.

Something had to give soon. I was running out of riddles.

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"_A hoard of rings am I,  
but no fit gift for a bride;  
I await a sword's kiss."_

The sphinx's riddle was, as usual, steeped in history. They all were. All the really hard riddles were the ones that had endured for centuries, harkening to time long forgotten.

But this one I recognized. It had been my headline for a section on war riddles. It had been pretty easy, certainly compared to some of the others she had offered me.

"It's chainmail" I said, my voice devoid of any enthusiasm.

I turned my mind inward, seeking one more riddle, one brilliant brainteaser that could not fail to confound the beast. _Historic Riddles are her strength,_ I thought. _To beat her, I have to stop offering her riddles based on her time, based on the things she understands._

_I have to get modern._

"I place my boot in front of a hotel, and immediately realize that I'm bankrupt.

Why"

As I spoke the riddle, I watched the sphinx's face fall in despair. _She doesn't know! _My insides were doing back flips; my heart was beating out a samba.

"You kept your money in a boot?" the sphinx asked, hopefully. She knew she was wrong.

"Uhh, let me think... NO! I was playing monopoly, you fool!" I cackled menacingly, and said, in as superior tone as I could manage "Now, I have defeated you. Reveal to me the location of the next clue to the location of the hellfire cross."

To emphasize my point, I drew my staff and whispered to it, causing it to turn into a bow. Drawing an arrow from the quiver on my hip, I notched it, and pointed it at the sphinx's neck.

"_Seek the eternally blind king_

_He knows the whereabouts of this thing_

_With his goodwill, you may prevail_

_Without it, you are doomed to fail."_

Great. Another riddle. I drew the arrow backwards as if top fire it and said: "Where will we find him?"

"She stared at the celestial bronze tip of my arrow and said "the food court. Three blocks away. You can't miss it."

I motioned to Katrina, and we turned to leave.

"Wait" The sphinx cried. "You cannot leave me like this. How can I bear the shame of defeat? You must kill me, as punishment for defeat."

"That shame? That is your punishment. Live with it. Now and forever." I said, and with that, I was gone.

**So what do you all think? I hope you enjoyed it. Please review, as usual; one question per review will be answered. Oh, and this is probably my last major update for a while, what with MAJOR exams in the coming month. So enjoy. And review.**


	11. Where I see a whole new side of Kat

**Thank you to: Ellen 26, breezy 59105, spacegirl94, music5692, meiscool2, Anonymous Friend, FantasyFan-WriterGirl, The Angels Have The Blue Box, Ultimacy On High and olympianchef213 for reviewing chapter 10.**

**Sorry for the long wait on this guys and gals, but exams take precedence, and I've been ill. Thankfully, they're over, so I can get back to writing.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned this, you'd pay £6.99 for it, and it's come with a snazzy cover… and real pages.**

Exiting the dilapidated house, I looked up at the sky. It was ablaze with the light of sunset, a mesmerizing tableau of reds and purples, fading softly into pinks and yellows as the sun sank luxuriously into the horizon. _I'll see you later Dad,_ I thought rather wryly.

I was still staring into the horizon when Katrina nudged me in the arm. I shook my head to dispel the lethargy that had overtaken my body and looked at her soft features, lit up by the sunset, seemingly ablaze with emotion, hinting at delights untold and… _whoa, stop right there Artie, _I told myself. _You're a son of Apollo, but that's no excuse for getting all soppy and poetic. You have a job to do._

"Artie? Artie? You there?" She snapped her fingers in front of me, bringing me out from my inner monologue.

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry about that, just got a bit distracted. I'm a half blood, it's what we do, eh?" I said, slightly too quickly.

"Well, shouldn't we get moving? I mean, get to this food court, and find the 'eternally blind king?'" She asked.

I looked up at the sky, and then at my watch. It was getting late, and no doubt this food court would be closed by now anyway.

"Not tonight. It's too late, we'll have to wait until morning. Besides, I don't know about you, but I am exhausted. Let's find a hotel to crash for the night, yeah? I looked at her pleadingly. She rolled her eyes and said:

"All right then. But first thing tomorrow, we're moving out. And since you got to handle the sphinx, then I'm calling dibs on the next monster we face, you got that? I'm not gonna be letting you take all the glory from this quest."

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We did a quick walk round and found the best hotel within a reasonable budget. We walked up to the counter, trying to look as mature as possible, and I said: "Excuse me, we'd like a room please." I felt Kat's foot dig into my shin. "I mean, uh, we would like two rooms, with a connecting bit in the middle, just for one night, uh, uh…" I stammered.

The concierge looked at me with a critical expression and said, in a painfully obviously fake French Accent "Excuse-ee moi, suur, I am efraid we du not cat-er to min-ors."

Kat shoved me to the side and said "We are NOT minors. We're 16 years old. We just happen to look quite a lot younger at the first glance." She frowned, as if she was concentrating very, very hard, then clicked her fingers. The sound echoed around the near empty hotel lobby. "look again. We are not minors. We ARE sixteen years old." She kept stressing the verb sounds, and something in the verb sounds.

Something in the concierge's face shifted slightly, and his voice seemed to take on a slightly different tone, one that conveyed welcome, rather then annoyance or patronization. "Of course, madam. Please, allow me to show you to your rooms. And will that be cash or credit?" He asked, the epitome of politeness.

I shot her a questioning look, she waved it away and said "Cash please, we'll only be staying for one night." She reached into her bag and pulled out a roll of notes, handing them to the concierge.

"Now, you were going to show us to our rooms?" she suggested.

"Of course madam. Right this way."

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The room was immense. Seriously, you could have played baseball in the central room, and still have room for four rows of spectators. And the sheer number of sofas and comfortable chairs could probably accommodate that many people as well.

"I will leave you now, sir, madam, please feel free to call for anything from ze room service, or remove any items from the minibar." The concierge said before spinning around and leaving the room.

I waited five seconds, before saying (I might have shouted, come to think of it) "Mind telling me what the bloody hell just happened? One minute, he was about to throw us out of the lobby, the next, he was acting as if we were bloody royalty. And what was with that finger snap? And this massive suite? Which, by the way, we can afford how?"

I'd have probably gone on if a need for oxygen hadn't defeated me.

"Shhh!" she said, raising a finger to her lips. "Do you want us thrown out?" she looked at me outraged. I took a slight step back, remembering what she had done to Zane during capture the flag. I shuddered inwardly.

"But…" I started.

"Whatever. Anyway, what happened was a little trick I picked up from Chiron. You remember what he told about the mist that hides our world from the mortals? Well he showed me how to manipulate the mist, allow it to control what we look like or how situations appear to immortals. I'm not very good though, which is why I needed to use the click as a focusing point."

"As for where the money comes from to pay for" she gestured limply around the room "all this, just remember that the Gods have deep pockets, and that Chiron likes to make sure we don't run out of money on these quests."

"Okay, I'll drop it then." I said, somewhat mollified, but mostly confused. "I'm gonna take advantage of this massive suite, and get some archery training done." I didn't get enough got enough practice before we had to leave camp, and I'm nowhere near confident enough to leave something like that to chance in a combat situation.

While talking, I was searching through my bag for the collapsible target one of my siblings from the Apollo cabin had given me. I caught sight of the look that Katrina was giving me.

"What?" I demanded. I mean, she was looking at me like I was repulsive.

"You might not have noticed, but you really need a shower." I stopped, and lifted my right arm, taking a deep sniff.

Big mistake.

Katrina had a point. I really could use a shower. I guess all that sweating I had done under the sphinxes glare had taken it's toll.

"Okay, maybe you're right. I will take a shower. See you in twenty, okay?" I said, heading towards the door.

"That's the Jacuzzi. Bathroom's that way." She pointed at another door, far across the room, shaking her head in amusement. I turned, wordlessly, and entered the bathroom.

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After my shower, I went into my room, and grabbed hold of my staff. I put it into it's bag, then started practicing, the way I had before my life had become so insanely complicated. Everything just melted away, no more monsters, no more deaths, no more quests to save the lives of my extended family. It was just me and my OCD. All was consumed by the endless flow as twirl, strike, block, thrust, parry. I began to mix it up, making the transition between staff and bow as smooth as possible, firing arrow at targets that I set up on impulse, trying to perfect my aim at close range. All thought, all reason, emotion, everything just went away.

So far away, in fact, that when Katrina entered the door, I almost shot her with my bow.

I say almost, solely because Kat's reflexes were good enough to dodge the arrow as it flew at her.

"What the hell Artie? Why are you shooting at me?" She screamed, feeling around on her belt for her throwing sickle.

"Wait! It was an accident, I swear, I didn't mean to. You just startled me, I was training. For Hera's sake, don't hurt me." I screamed. I knew exactly what Kat could do in a fight, and had no intention to experience it for myself.

She took in a few deep breaths, obviously trying to fight down her anger. To be honest, if I was in her position, I'd probably have failed. Thankfully, Demeter kids aren't as hot blooded as the rest of us half-bloods.

"Okay. I just came in because I was worried, you've been in here for over 3 hours, making noises. You really should relax, get some rest. We've got an eternally blind king to find, remember?

I glanced at the clock. It was approaching midnight.

"Crap… I didn't realize…" I stammered. "I'll see you in the morning, Kat."

**I know, I know, it's been AGES, but I've had a million things to do. But it's all good now, and here's the latest chapter.** **The next one should be up relatively soon, okay? In the mean time, review. I'll answer one question per review, as normal.**


	12. Where I get REALLY confused

The first thing I was aware of was the brilliant sunlight, streaming into my bedroom like a river of fire through a small gap in the curtains, near blinding me. I blinked back tears that streamed through my eyes, unadjusted to the brightness.

The second thing I was aware of was Kat, crashing through into my room with all the grace and poise of an unguided missile. She exhaled loudly as she winded herself against my door and then took a few minutes to get her bearings. I tried, feebly to pull myself up, my body leaden with the bleariness of sleep. Finally, with far too much effort for my liking at this early hour, I managed to sit up. Inexplicably, she began blushing and giggling… _Oh no, I thought. Please don't let what I'm thinking be true…Please Zeus, have pity…_

The third thing I realized was the fact that my duvet was on the floor, and that I was, regretfully, naked.

"Hell!" I screamed, while rolling sideways across the bed, imposing it between Kat and myself. _Damn you Zeus…I'm never gonna live this down. _My face was burning, it felt like every cubic milliliter of blood was pulsing through my face. "GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!"

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"So, do you make a habit of sleeping naked in a hotel room, just 2 doors away from a girl you barely know?" Kat asked, still rather…giggly.

Five minutes after the inappropriate awakening, I was ready to face the world, clad in my army jacket and a pair of slightly dilapidated jeans. A short bus ride (apparently, Kat's green agenda didn't extend to buses) and we were outside the food court.

"Now remember Artie, you promised I got first shot at whatever monster we're dealing with here. So don't even think about trying to hog the glory this time."

Kat sounded oddly serious, almost as if this glory of hers was something worth striving for. Personally, I would just be happy to find this king and get back on the road to finding this Hellfire cross.

"Okay, okay… feel free. You can fight the big ugly, I'll just sit in the back seat, and maybe make some funny comments." I said, only half joking.

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The food court was… manic. An endless hustle and bustle of constant motion, full to the brim with a multitude of…people. A constant blur of fried chicken and limp salads and overfilled drinks, surrounded by pimply faced teens trapped in dead end low paying jobs.

It was, in essence, a food court. There was nothing untoward about it. He looked around, his eyes drifting slightly away from the centre. I scanned the room again, nothing odd. My eyes drifted away from the centre.

Wait.

My eyes drifted away from the centre.

I looked again, this time, doing my best to focus solely on the centre of the room. Again, my eyes began to solely drift away. But this time I was looking for it, I could recognize the effects of a highly concentrated pocket of mist. I turned to Kat.

"You can see it?" I asked, not taking my eyes of the blur that I could see now occupied the centre of the room.

"Yeah. But the only way we'll know what's inside, is to go inside." She replied.

"My guess, I think it's an eternally blind king." I said, wryly.

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Entering the mist was… tres bizarre. It was like walking through a hurricane as a ghost. Things swirled around us at a ridiculous speed, but passed straight through our bodies…

After penetrating the four foot thick barrier of fog, I emerged into a room that seemed, to my mind, to be a lot bigger then mist barrier had been. A closer inspection revealed it to be the same room that we'd just left. _But...that can't be… How? It makes no sense._

"Kat? This making ANY kind of sense to you?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the centre of the room.

"One: Don't call me Kat, Two: no, nothing. At a guess, though, judging from a TV documentary I saw once, and a whole lot of science fiction novels, I'd say we're looking at 4th dimensional geometry."

I gave her a look.

"You read Sci-fi?" I shook my head, then said "And what's all this 4 dimensional whatever?"

"Geometry. Basically, it's the idea that space isn't straight. It's bent, and there are loopy bits, etcetera. So I'm guessing by going from a mist environment through that barrier, we entered the same room, but without the mist, and If we go back through the barrier, we'll find ourselves in the same room, facing out from the centre."

I'm sorry to say, all I could do was stop and and stare, my mouth hanging open like an astonished fish out of water.

"Whu…what? I'm sorry, I was with you up until Geometry."

"Never mind. Lets just find the blind guy, get what we need, and get out of here."

"Sounds like a plan. And look, over there, by the corner. I think that's our man." I pointed over to a man, dressed in purple tunic and with a silver circlet on his head.

"How do you know it's him? I see half a dozen guys dressed like something off a floor mosaic."

"Well, for a start, he's in the middle. Second, he's wearing a circlet thing that looks like a crown, third, he's wearing purple, which was, and is, the colour of royalty, and fourth, if you watch, he's feeling around for his food. He's the one Kat, I'm sure of it."

Unfortunately, my little brilliant piece of deduction was undercut somewhat by the sudden arrival of a bunch of scaly reptilian flying things, crashing through the doors.

"What the hell are those things?" I yelled, over their maniacal screeching.

"Harpies." She replied, biting her top lip.

"What? I thought the harpies worked for the gods, at camp half blood."

"Those are tame harpies. These, these are wild."

"Wild? They're bloody livid!" I shot back.

"Well, sit down. It's my turn to fight the big bad, remember?"

"WHAT? YOU WERE BEING SERIOUS? I THOUGHT YOU WERE KIDDING AROUND!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. This glory obsession was going to get her killed. "YOU THINK I'M GONNA SIT AROUND WHILE YOU GET YOURSELF KILLED?"

"YES! Wait. No. You're gonna sit around while I take care of these wimpy harpies."

"FINE! BUT WHEN THEY NEARLY KILL YOU, I'M NOT GOING TO HELP!"

"FINE!" And with that, she stormed off, towards the harpies, which were now descending upon the king and his party. In one smooth motion, she pulled out her sword and her throwing sickle, then threw the sickle into the formation of harpies.

Watching Kat fight… (without being the intended target) was nothing short of breathtaking. She made it into an art form, looking more like a ballroom dancer then a fighter. She ducked, and span, and leapt and cartwheeled and slashed and threw.

I watched, as the bodies of harpies hit the floor, disintegrating into mist on impact.

For ten gruesome, impulsive and misty minutes, she sliced and diced her way through the ranks of harpies, until only two were left. Unfortunately, these two were obviously the Alpha pair of the group, because they were quite successful at avoiding her sickle, and were wily to remain out of her reach. And she was getting tired from the constant ducking and weaving and jumping.

Suddenly, both of them dived at her while she was in mid jump, from different directions. Without thinking, I screamed my fathers name while yanking the forming bow to the front and notching an arrow. Meanwhile, she managed to draw her swod and kill one of the harpies, but the other had managed to get its talons on her neck.

I fired.

It pierced the harpies skull and lodged in the ceiling, as Kat landed on the ground with a thump.

"Hope I didn't steal too much of your glory there." I called over, as she tried to scrape the ketchup she had fallen onto off her face.

"You didn't have to cut it so close. Jeez, I could have been killed!"

Women.

I will never understand them.


	13. Where kings and courts go on forever

**Big thanks to all my reviewers. That's: Ellen 26, meiscool2, Von de Vohn, Avalon Freak, and of course 4evacrazy. Kudos.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any affiliated material. Neither do I own the myth of King Phineas, which I have shamelessly altered to suit my own purposes. (Everything but the immortality and the multiple courts is pretty much accurate though) I'll disclaim Lycos in the next chapter.**

The delegation of robed men approached us, their arms spread wide in adulation. However, one remained at the table, frantically eating, shoveling as much food as possible down his throat, as if any second now, the whole spread would disappeared.

I strained to see which of the men it was. Yep… it was definitely the one I'd pegged as the king.

"Congratulations, young heroes! Your valiant actions have earned us a temporary relieve from the harpies that constantly beset us whenever our king attempts to eat." He faltered, as he saw Kat was still staring at the king. I was too. I mean, the guy was trying to fit an entire rack of ribs into one mouthful.

"Ahh, yes. You'll have to forgive our king. It's been a long time since he last a chance to eat. Those blasted harpies have stolen, destroyed or defecated on every morsel he has ever attempted to raise to his lips for…" He paused and looked at his comrades, "almost 3000 years now."

It was as if a light bulb lit up in Kat's head, with all the brightness of a class two nebula. "Of course! You're the court of King Phineas!"

"Aaaah, my child, you have knowledge as well as fighting prowess. Indeed, we are the latest incarnation of the court of King Phineas, dedicated to serving the king for as long as our lives hold out, at which point, our successors will take over. I am Genives" The noble, Genives, said, beaming that Kat had figured it out.

Unfortunately, I might as well have been an Amish man at an electronics symposium, because I was well and truly lost. I shot a look at Kat, then at the group. "Someone wanna catch me up here? I have NO idea what's going on."

For three seconds, there was silence. Then, I heard a slight giggle from the back of the crowd. Finally, everyone in the immediate vicinity cracked up, some bent over from their laughter.

Including Kat.

"It… It would appear that your companion is… is not as… knowledgeable as you are" Genives said, gasping for air, holding his ribs. "Perhaps you should enlighten him?"

Kat inhaled heavily, and tried to fight the amusement that threatened to double her over again.

"Okay. It all began about 3500 years ago. King Phineas was offered a choice by the gods, either live a short life, or live forever blind. Desiring immortality, he chose the latter option, and sacrificed his sight. Unfortunately, Helios, who was still the sun god at that point, before your dad, took offense that anyone would voluntarily choose to go without the light that he provided, and ordered all the harpies of the north wind to harry the king. And therefore, whenever he went to eat, they would descend, stealing what food they could, crapping all over what they couldn't. It didn't matter what they tried, dogs, archers, traps, poisoned food, eating inside, the harpies always got to the food, and always survived"

She paused for breath, drawing herself up into full storytelling mode.

"Then, 3000 years ago, the Argonauts came to King Phineas on the advice of lady Hera, asking how to get past the clashing rocks, known as the Stympelglades. But before he would help them, they had to distract the harpies long enough for him to eat a real meal, for the first time in Five centuries. With the help of Zephryus and Boreas, winged sons of the west wind, they succeeded and he helped them."

"Wait...how did he know how to get past the Clashing rocks?" I asked, my curiosity seriously piqued.

"Well, bear in mind, he was 500 by that point, you're bound to pick up a few things by that point." She replied. "and before you ask what the deal with the others is, they're just his court, descended from his original court. They serve him, keep him company throughout his eternity. If my math is right, I think this is the… 57th version of the council?" She looked to Genives.

"59th. The 32nd court was killed long before their time in the Viking conquests, and the 57th were killed in a monster attack. But not bad, not bad at all. Tell me, who was your mother?" He asked, looking softly at her.

"Demeter. Why do you want to know?" she asked, defensively.

"Ah, I thought so." He said cryptically. Suddenly, he became business like and said. "But enough of such pleasantries. People only seek out the king when they need his knowledge for a quest. By defeating the harpies, you have earned the right to ask him anything you wish." He waved us onwards, towards the king.

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We approached the table, where the king was lying back contentedly. Apparently it was possible to be full, even after 3000 years without food, if you had a ready supply of fried chicken, burgers, fries, and from what I could tell, half the countries ketchup production this year.

"Aaaah, you must be the heroes who slayed the Harpies that beset me so. Thank you for waiting for me to finish before coming over here. It's been so long… and this was all so good." He glanced down longingly at the empty plates in front of him, and patted his stomach contentedly.

"Actually, your majesty, It wasn't me that slayed them. That honor can only go to my friend, Kat OW" Kat suddenly stamped on my foot. "Katrina, who fought the harpies single handedly."

He turned to her, and smiled fondly, like a grandfather hearing about his favourite grandchild's good report card. "Well, my child, I have much to be thankful for to you then, and I will happily answer any questions you wish."

"Please my liege, tell us where we can find the hellfire cross. We need it to save the oracle." She asked.

"I'm afraid I never discovered the final location of the Cross. I spent many years scouring the ancient texts for it's location, but to no avail. I did however discover a clue to it's whereabouts. Buried, encoded within the third page of the original copy of the Oddysey,

"_On the Lycans wall you will find the clue to the Cross of Hellfire._

_Assemble, and rearrange it, around the emerald fire."_

"With respect, my lord, what does that MEAN?" Kat asked, slightly impatient.

I agreed with her. _Seriously, would kill these mythological types to stick to the facts, and leave out all the riddling and half truths? _

"Well, What the wall itself or the emerald fire represent, I can't even begin to speculate. But the home of the Lycans, well, there's a place I wish I could forget. I found it, not 50 years, at the height of the McCarthy witch hunts." Seeing the blank looks on our faces, he explained. "General McCarthy spearheaded the campaign to root out communists and Russian sympathizers during the cold war. The investigations were brutal, and even those deemed innocent often had their reputations so badly damaged that they couldn't find work. A lot of people lost everything to a nations fear. And more then one family just disappeared during investigations." He inhaled deeply. "A monster, Lycos, was using the witch hunts as a cover to attack mortals without arising suspicion. My court and I stumbled across his home while fleeing some particularly viscous harpies." His voice caught in his throat, and he began sobbing.

"The 57th court. Lycos was their killer, wasn't he?" I asked, softly, remembering what Genives had told us.

"He did more then that. He…he turned them into his followers, mutated them into creatures like himself. I was lucky to escape with my life. If it hadn't been for my mothers intervention, I wouldn't have." He replied.

"If you truly must find this cross, then head to this address." He handed me a piece of paper, about the size of a business card, which I slipped into a jeans pocket. "But I warn you. No-one has ever escaped Lycos's sanctum in over 50 years. If you value your lives, you will give it a wide birth."

"Thank you, King Phineas. But you must know we can't turn back now. We have a duty to the gods. We would be dishonored to turn back now." Kat replied, her tone humble, but determined.

"Beware your pride, my child. It will lead you astray if you do not control it. Just like it did your father." Suddenly, the scene seemed to change. The mist that had been lifted so miraculously before was starting to seep back in. The king was becoming more and more obscure with every instant. Already, the rest of his court were invisible to us.

"Wait. What about my father? Who was he? WHO WAS HE? ANSWER ME!" Kat demanded, to no avail. Through the nearly opaque fog, I am certain I saw his lips moving, but no sound seemed to be coming out.

Then, it was gone. The king, his court, the mist, everything. All that was left was a normal food court, about to close up for the night, and Kat, kneeling on the floor, sobbing.

**So what did you all think? Seriously, I want to know. I NEED to know. If you don't tell me, I might go insane. ;-) So review. Pleeeeeeeeeeease.**

**If you do, I'll answer one question per review on any topic relating to the story, EXCEPT Kat's father. (Sorry, but it will ruin too much)**


	14. where i act against my instincts

**Big thank you's to: Imaginative Rainbow Penguin, Von de Vohn, Avalonfreak, ashl3yj0nas43v3r, meiscool2, and 4evacrazy. Your reviews inspire me to keep going. **

I looked down and saw Kat as I had never, ever expected to see her.

She was crying.

Not that that in itself was incomprehensible. After all, she'd spent her life not knowing her father, and to suddenly have hope of finding out who he was, only to have it snatched away from her just as quickly, well, I spent most of my life not knowing MY father, so I guess I could relate. But… this was Katrina Serton. I'd seen her demolish half a dozen fighters at a time. Just an hour ago, she'd obliterated over twenty wild harpies _on her own._

And now, she was kneeling on the floor, sobbing into her hands, her bright blue hair pasted across her forehead. It was hard to reconcile the two images. _Then reconcile them later you insensitive jerk_ I mentally chastised my self. _Analyze later. Help Now._

I sidled up to her and plonked my butt beside hers, placing a hand softly on her shoulder, while my other hand groped around on a nearby table for a napkin or a tissue. I found one, and turned to Kat.

Slowly, carefully, I removed the hair from her eyes and handed her the napkin. I looked into her bright green eyes, now swamped with tears, and just said "How can I help?"

She shook her head and went to get up, started to tell me that she didn't need help, that she was gonna be fine.

"That's rubbish Katrina." I said, unfalteringly. "You're obviously upset. Now tell me how I can make it better."

She looked at me in surprise. To be honest, I was a tad surprised myself. After all, my normal response to emotional women had been to run for the hills, usually screaming.

"It's just… I don't like to talk about it." She said, faintly.

"I get that Katrina. I didn't want to talk about my ADHD or my dyslexia for years. I still don't feel comfortable discussing it. But keeping it all inside, bottling it all up, well, it almost destroyed me. Keeping it from everyone, it was a full time job. So trust me, please. Open up, even just a little. It will help, I promise."

She blew her runny nose into the napkin, turned to the side, and in a voice so faint I could barely hear, she said "Okay."

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I guided Kat to a table on the far side of the room, far away from anyone who might be listening, though that wasn't hard. By now, the food court was practically deserted by now, and all that was still open was a sandwich bar and what looked like an ice cream stall. I made a mental note of that, if things went badly, Ice cream might be instrumental in cheering her up again…

Katrina looked up at me, and said, in a throaty voice. "You know I never knew my dad, right?" I nodded, having heard this from Zane, all those… days ago (was it really only 3 weeks since I'd come to Camp half blood? It seemed so much longer…) "I was abandoned on the doorstop of Camp when I was less then a year old, with a note saying my name, and my birthday. That was it. I've tried looking for my Dad, but without a description or a first name, it's impossible to find someone if they don't want to be found these days." The look in her eyes was almost desperate.

"Anyway, I spent the first twelve years of my life in the Hermes cabin. You know what it's like in there, it's rowdy, overcrowded, your stuff gets nicked if its not padlocked 3 times and cursed. So early on, I figured I could get out of there by impressing my godly parent. So I spent my entire life trying to be the perfect camper. The perfect warrior. But no matter how many fights I won, no matter how many times I helped my team win capture the flag, I was still unclaimed. I hated it. I really did."

"So how did you get claimed then?" I asked, very curious now.

"I grew an apple tree in an Ares camper's stomach." She said, looking me straight in the eye.

"What? You grew a TREE inside of someone? How is that even possible?"

"This guy was picking on a pair of kids, they were like 3 years old for Hera's sake, and I just got so mad that I drew my sword and leapt at him, screaming in Greek, before I got near him though, he just sort of keeled over and started moaning, and his chest was squirming, like something was trying to burst out." A vision of that scene from Alien flashed through my mind, where the infected guy explodes on the table in a shower of fake blood and gore. "Anyway, it turned out I'd managed to make an apple seed inside him germinate, and well, it was enough to convince Demeter that it was time to claim me." She paused for breath.

"But even after I moved to Demeter cabin, I still wasn't happy. I was suddenly expected to drop all my extra sword fighting practice and combat training, and use my nature powers to grow pwetty little flowers for the camp and other pointless exercises." Her voice dripped with scorn.

I remembered how my siblings had treated me when I had been claimed, dragging me along to music and poetry classes I had no interest in, making me spend hours engaged in activities that held no interest for me. _Enough Artie. You're here to LISTEN not think about yourself. _

Kat had started speaking again. "And now this Phineas comes up, tells me he knows my father, that his undoing was his glory or his honor or something. I mean what, does that mean he's dead? Or what?" I could see she was shaking with anger and frustration. "So there, that's me. I opened up, are you happy?"

"I once spent 3 days without sleep revising for a 5th grade spelling test that got cancelled, and I can still name every single word on that list, in order and spell them all, all these years later." I said, a hint of an edge entering my voice.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Katrina asked me, though, I could she the barest hints of a smile creeping into her expression.

"No. I just figured, since you were sharing something private, I'd tell you something that I'd never told another soul." I said, my tone sincere.

"Oh my god. You're actually serious, aren't you?" She laughed out loud, lighting up her face. I noticed that she obviously hadn't been wearing much makeup, because her tears hadn't made it smudge or run at all. "You're a serious fricken wackadoodle, you know that? I mean, obsessing over spelling tests and silly second grade projects, counting your steps, it's all a bit insane really."

"You don't have to live with it. I mean, seriously, try sleeping when your brain is screaming 'You should be training' 24/7. It's like something's trying to control me, guide me." I said, a little annoyed.

"Yeah. Wackadoodle. Hey, how many steps to that counter over there?" She asked, pointing a stall we'd passed earlier.

"27." I blurted out, completely unconsciously. "Ahh, I hate that. It really creeps me out saying things like that when I don't even _know_ the answer."

"How far to central park?" She asked between gasps of laughter.

"4796 steps" I said. "STOP IT!" I yelled. "You're freaking me out here."

"Hey, it's your weird brain." She shot back, but refrained from asking how far it was to anywhere else.

"Look lets get out of here. I think I saw a small BnB on the way with a vacancy. They'll probably be a bit more lax when it comes to minors renting rooms."

"Sounds good. Say, how many steps is it from here?" she asked, mischievously.

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We talked more for the whole night, old crushes, training techniques, amusing anecdotes. By the time the sun rose, it was like we'd known each other for years. I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so completely at ease with someone. _But then, this is pretty much the first time you've been totally straight up with someone, _I thought to myself.

Anyway, we headed to the building Phineas had told us was the location of this Lycos and his wall. Thankfully, it wasn't far from the BnB. (3670 steps, if like Kat you had been wondering.)

I remembered what Phineas had told us about this monster. Apprehensiously, I knocked the door. There was no response. I turned to Kat, and asked "Are we absolutely sure this is the right place?" She nodded.

I reached into my backpack and pulled out the breast plate that Kat had made for me from the behemoths scale. I slipped it beneath my hoody, and it adjusted itself to fit my body. _Handy that…wonder how it works._ Without more ado, I took a few steps back, and lunged at the door, striking it with my shoulder and driving my entire mass through. I crashed straight through and landed in a roll. My eyes struggled to adjust to the dark of the room. My hand strayed oh so slightly to my staff.

Suddenly, a harsh, evil voice that haunts me to this day filled the room. It was like a knife scraping through skin mixed in with a howl of some large predator.

"I don't remember ordering takeout… but I never look a gift horse in the mouth."

I looked up.

Straight into the eyes of a werewolf.

**WHOA! CLIFFIE! Now what are you gonna do? I think this is it until after my exams, I'm afraid, so I tired to make it a longer then ordinary chapter. As per usual, each reviewer gets to ask me 1 question about the story.**


	15. Where I fight harder then ever before

**All right, people, I'm on a roll, and I've broken the hundred review mark. (Whahoooooooo!) So here we go, the latest chapter of Child of the Sun, and the longest fight scene I have ever written. I'm quite fond of it myself. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: the universe is Rick Riordans'. The characters are mine. (Lycos and werewolves in general belong to someone, I'm sure, but that someone isn't me.) Lycos was an actual Greek monster, but I've altered his story slightly to fit in with the PJO universe.**

The monster, Lycos, leapt for me, his fangs glinting almost luminously in the darkened room. I pushed my feet backwards out of my kneeling crouch, rolling backwards. As I did so, I extended my left leg, kicking out at Lycos's jaw as he passed through the spot where my head had been, barely milliseconds before.

I continued my backwards roll up onto my feet, drawing my staff as I rose. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kat had already drawn her sword. Lycos was stumbling back holding his nose with one hand. He raised his hand, slowly, carefully, and made some signal, a cross between a chop and a wave. Suddenly, the room was lit by firelight, coming from four roaring fires around the room, one in each corner.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the new brightness and I was able to see the whole of the room. Then, I wished they hadn't adjusted. Behind Lycos, were at least fifteen other creatures similar, though smaller, to himself.

They were Werewolves. Their bodies were crouched over in an animalistic gait, they were covered in grey and brown fur that looked unwashed for… well ever, and their mouths were full of yellow, plaque covered teeth, dripping saliva onto the floor like a pack of dogs slavering over their next meal.

Which was basically the situation.

"Look, we don't want any trouble. We just want to examine your wall, and then we'll be on our way. No-one has to die today." I said, sounding far braver then I actually was. But then, I was about three seconds away from peeing myself, so that wasn't exactly hard.

"Wrong, demigod. You must die today. For WE. ARE. HUNGRY!" The last three words were chanted out by the rest of the werewolves, like a battle cry. "Tell me, demigods. Who are your parents? I'll send them a token of sorrow over their children's deaths."

His voice was filled with condescension, and supreme confidence.

"My father is Apollo. But you'll never talk to him, unless he decides to visit you in the depths of Tartarus." I vaguely wondered if my trash talk was a bit over the top, but unfortunately, it didn't seem to deter them. The wolves had all began twitching their ears and licking their lips, a new sense of excitement rippling through them like a canine Mexican wave.

"Apollo! Well that just makes it sweeter. I would of preferred one of your Aunt's little hunter brats, but you'll do just as well. Your death will be one of the many that will be destroyed in payment for your Aunt's supplanting of my Mistress, rightful ruler of the moon, Selene!" His voice was quickly deteriorating into a fit of frenzy.

"Whatever lunatic. And yes, I did intend the pun." I said, trying to work myself up to a fight, which was quickly looking inevitable. "One way or another, we're studying that wall." I slipped of my back pack, giving myself more flexibility to fight with.

"Over my dead body!" he snarled, his words barely recognizable over the growling that was emanating from him, a deep rumbling coming from his chest.

"My thought's exactly." I whispered softly, though I had no doubt that he could hear me. My upper lip curled slightly into a wry grin. I turned to Kat and said. "You know, you don't have to stay. I'm sure I can handle it."

"Fat chance Sun boy. I'm in this just as much as you are." Her voice was resolute, hard as granite.

"Just thought I'd check. Wouldn't want you to feel obligated now." She simply glared at me.

"Enough of this! Take them!" Lycos screamed, pointing at us with his claws, shaking with anger. The other werewolves charged at us, lolloping across the ground like demented apes, all thought or reason surrendered to the beast within. Any humanity they may have once possessed was gone. They were nothing but animals.

And animals like that need to be put down. I whispered my fathers' name, feeling my staff reform into a bow, and notched a trio of arrows together. I drew the bow back with all the force I could muster, stretching the string back as far as it could go, and then some. Then I waited.

And waited.

I waited until the wolves were within twenty feet. Then I let them have it. The three arrows scorched through the air towards their targets. One pierced a wolves head, exiting the back of its skull with half the creatures' underdeveloped brain trailing behind. Another went straight into one of the werewolf's heart, and stayed lodged in there. It collapsed to its knees and disintegrated into a pool of mist. The third was aimed at Lycos himself, which he dodged easily.

I turned my weapon back into a staff and grabbed hold of it tightly. By my reckoning, we were facing odds of at least 15 to 1 against. But we had one advantage they didn't. We had brains.

The first werewolf got within striking range of me. His first, (and only) attack was a simple slash with his claws. I ducked just in time to avoid receiving a new mouth situated in my neck, and then sprung up, jumping over the wolf's guard, and bringing my staff down between it's eyes shattering it's skull. As I landed, one of the werewolves nailed me with a sidekick to the ribs, sending me backwards across the room. As I flew back, I saw Katrina deftly behead two of the wolves at once, which had tried to attack her at the same time and gotten in each others way.

Another of the wolves stood over me, I struck his knee hard with my staff, feeling the bones crunch as the staff bent the tendons beyond the point where they could continue to exist in one piece. I rolled the staff back over my hand and stabbed it out into the monsters eye socket. I twisted the staff and then ripped it out, hastily wiping on the monsters fur before he disintegrated. By now, only about half the werewolves were still fighting the others either too injured to fight or dead. Unfortunately for us, Lycos himself decided to enter the fray.

He carried two vicious looking curved swords, stained with what I really hoped, but really doubted was tomato juice. I shouted to Kat, "I'll handle Lycos, you keep these guys busy." She nodded, too busy to actually reply verbally.

I charged at Lycos, raising my staff into a guard that covered most of my upper torso and head. I blocked his first strike, a head swipe, and then managed to deflect his second blade with my arm, catching the flat of the blade with my arm. It grazed down my leg, drawing a red line that blazed with pain.

For what seemed like hours, but in reality may have only been minutes, we fought with all the energy we could muster. I was constantly on the back foot, unable to press the attack, lest one his blades lop off one or more of my body parts. But somehow, I was still able to meet his endless unwearying assault. My staff flew through the air in a pattern seemingly of its own design, my body reacting blindly to the movements of my feral opponent.

What happened next is still something of a mystery to me. Intercepting a strike aimed at my belly, I smashed my staff down on the back of his wrist, causing him to drop one of his swords. Then, using that energy, I struck upwards at his other arm, which was coming down for a downward strike. He dropped the second sword. At the same time, I lifted my back leg and thrust forward, striking the werewolf in the face, unbalancing him. A shoulder charge served to throw him across the room.

"Artie!" Kat screamed. Instinctively, I span around, yelled my fathers name and notched two arrows in the still forming bow. I drew the bow back and fired within milliseconds. The arrows shot into the heads of the werewolves holding her in place, while the other remaining wolf prepared to bite into her neck.

At the same time, Lycos must have recovered and leapt at me, and I felt his teeth sinking into my shoulder. The pain was… well, it was beyond any way of describing. It hurt so much I couldn't even scream, my mind cried out silently in agony. My bow dropped soundlessly to the floor. Then, just as my mind was about to succumb to unconsciousness, he withdrew, and spat out a chunk of meat, _My shoulder,_ I realized bitterly. I struggled to focus on what the animal was saying.

"I SWORE ON THE TALISMAN OF SELENE THAT I WOULD HAVE VENGEANCE ON ARTEMIS! AND NOW I HAVE! YOU WILL BURN IN PAIN FOREVER MORE!" He was screaming, near incoherent with his bloodlust filling every fiber of his being. I desperately scrabbled around with my good arm trying to grab hold of anything I could use as a weapon.

My hand strayed across a spent arrow, the one I had fired at Lycos at the start of the fight, the one he had dodged. I snatched it up and thrust it forward, under Lycos's jaw as he leaned in to finish me off.

"You… so have to…die!" I wheezed, using the last ergs of my strength to drive the arrow through the monsters mouth and out the back of its skull. He disintegrated almost instantaneously.

My vision was turning red, as blood seeped into my eyes. I was in serious trouble, and I knew it. If I carried on losing blood like this, I'd have maybe fifteen minutes before I was too far gone to survive. I saw Kat running over too me. She was carrying my pack, rummaging through it, looking for the medical kit. She forced nectar down my throat, trying to get my body to heal itself.

"Oh, god's Artie. That shoulders gonna get infected if we don't treat it quick. Where are the antiseptics?" she asked, her voice fraught with desperation.

"I'm afraid…we have a more… immediate problem." I choked out, glancing down at my hands.

"Which is?" she asked terrified. I held up my hand, limply, showing the small grey hairs that were sprouting from it like a time lapse flower shoot.

"I'm turning into a werewolf."

**I know, I know, evil cliffhanger again, but I couldn't avoid it this time. As usual, I'll answer 1 question per review, and please, please, review. They help me write faster.**


	16. Where I almost lose it all

**Thank you to all my reviewers, that's Crimson Taki, 4evacrazy, creamsoda92, upyouascat, Von de Vohn, and meiscool2. You people are truly saints. (126 review count, I'm loving it!) **

**Disclaimer, I don't own the PJO universe, Chiron or Iris messages. So there is no reason to sue.**

I fell to my knees, my hands shaking. My body was pulsing with pain, it felt as if fire was coursing through my entire being, consuming every part of me. Desperately, I tried to focus as my mind cried out in an agony that seemed to last for an age.

"Artie! What can I do? There has to be something to stop this." Katrina asked, her eyes watering. Or was that my imagination, a pain induced hallucination? I'll never really know, though she's always denied it since.

"Tie me…Arghhhhhh...up." I managed to choke out past the teeth forcing their way up through my throat, a scream punctuating my request as the pain welled up inside me, growing, multiplying. I struggled to my feet, and staggered over to a column, leaning against it for support. I turned my head as far as I could in Katrina's direction. "Do...it" I wheezed.

She nodded, and narrowed her eyes at the ground. Vines sprouted from the ground and wrapped around me, pinning me to the post. "Tighter." I said, a hint of anger entering my voice.

_She thinks this is gonna hold me? Stupid girl. I'm gonna rip her head off_ A voice in my head said.

_No, this isn't right. I wouldn't hurt Kat. I WON'T! _another voice replied.

_Oh fantastic, as if OCD, dyslexia and ADHD weren't enough, now we get to add schizophrenia to the mix, _yet another voice added, unhelpfully.

Meanwhile, I could feel the vines tightening around me, restraining my arms and legs individually. My head was strapped to the side, unable to turn. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kat stumble, and nearly collapse. Obviously creating the vines had taken a lot out of her.

_Hold on, Kat. Please. I need you to stay with me._ The voice in my head that was still me cried out silently.

_No, go to sleep stupid girl! Then I Will Feast on your flesh while you slumber! _The beast inside me yelled. Its voice was stronger, louder then mine, it was taking dominance. My vision was clouding over red, and changing somehow, becoming sharper, but losing sight of colors as they all blended into the red.

"Artie," her voice seemed so faint, so far away, like a telephone with bad reception. "Is there a cure? Tell me. TELL ME!" She screamed the last to words higher then an 80s dance club crowd. They cut through the fog of my mind, grounding me in reality.

"No… I don't know" I wheezed, the vines tightening around my chest, making it hard to breathe. "Kat…you have to…" I paused for air. "You have to… kill me."

"What?! You think I'm going to kill you? Are you mad?" she screamed, her voice approaching the ultrasonic range.

"No…choice. Don't want…to be this… Kill me before I…change." I gasped out, my voice distorted by the way my jaw was altering to accommodate the new fangs that were sprouting hideously from my gums.

"No. NO. I can't Artie. I can't kill you. I can't let you die." She choked out, sinking to her knees, holding her head in frustration. "Please Artie, don't ask me to…"

That word, please, it drove me mad. "Please? Please? Either kill me or let me down so I can bite your stupid bloody head off." I screamed, bloodlust filling my voice. "No…wait. No. I won't give in to this. I WON'T" I screamed, but my words sounded hollow coming from my now wolfish throat. My arms strained against the vines of their own accord, instincts absorbing sentience, the beast overcoming the soul. I slammed my head back against the pillar, trying to focus on the tactile sense of concrete slamming against my skull, to drown out the beasts' temptations.

I tried desperately to avoid looking at Kat, avoid thinking how deliciously tender she would be, how her flesh would just melt in my mouth, how wonderfully earthy she smelt. My body began to thrash against the vines, now completely beyond my control. Kat lifted her sword, drew it back into a high guard, then thrust out, stabbing the blade towards my heart. _At least it will be quick _I thought. Then, at the last possible second, she stopped, pulled the stab so that it only scratched my chest. She opened her hand and let the sword drop to the floor.

"Kat? What…are you doing?" I whined, though my new mouth made it sound more like a bark.

"Artie, do we have any asphodel leaves? In the med kit?" she asked, suddenly invigorated.

"No, just…seeds. In antiseptics." I was too confused, too transformed to really process what she was asking. _Asphodel…how could that possibly help? What, she wants an antiseptic for her wounds when I devour her alive? _My mouth began slavering at the thought, and I knew I only had a few minutes before all trace of my original personality had gone completely.

Meanwhile, Kat was rooting through the med kit, pulling out the cotton bag of asphodel seeds. She took one and placed it on the ground. Then she did something I have nightmares about to this day. She took her sword, and sliced open the back of her hand, dripping the blood from her sword on to the seed. Then, she stared at the seed, glaring at it as if it had offended her. Suddenly, it began to sprout into a seedling, and then a fully formed asphodel plant. Hurriedly, she stripped the leaves and ran to my side. She chewed one up, and spat into my shoulder, rubbing the wet mass of cellulose into my wound. Then she chewed up the others, and threw it into my mouth. Then, everything went black. _This is the end. _I thought, dumbly.

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My eyes fluttered open, light stinging my retinas. Everything was so bright, so distant, like being under anesthetic at the Dentist's. I could feel things that I knew should hurt, but didn't. _So this is Elysium, huh? I thought it would be greener then this. Less dingy. _Then, I saw Kat's smiling face.

"Oh, god's, Kat, I killed you didn't I? I'm so sorry, I swear. I'll never forgive myself." I babbled. I'd honestly thought she was safe, but the beast must have taken over and broken free.

"What are you chatting about?" she asked, bemused. Her face was a mix of concern and humour. I didn't see the funny side of being dead.

"Well, I'm dead, so this is obviously the afterlife, but you're here, so I must have killed you. Oh Zeus, why did you have to die? You could have been fine. It wasn't even your quest dammit." I was on the verge of tears, my voice croaking with sorrow.

Then, completely without warning, she leaned down and _pinched _me. "Oww, That hurt! What the Hell?" I cried out. Okay, I was being rather babyish on reflection, but Kat has mean pinches.

"There's no pain in the afterlife. That hurt, therefore, you're not dead." She said, smugly. _Well, that sort of makes sense. But why AREN'T I dead? _I thought.

"Indeed, I can concur, you are most assuredly NOT dead." A familiar voice to my side said. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't to see Chiron's head floating about two feet above the ground, surrounded by a large bubble of cloudy mist. Behind him, I could see what looked like a section of the Big House.

"Kat…" I began, trying futilely to keep my voice level, "Is it just me that can see Chiron's head floating over there?" I asked, desperately hoping that I was simply going mad.

"What, oh, yeah, that's an IM. I forgot you didn't know about them. Think of it as a magic portal that only light and sound can travel through." She replied, still chuckling at me.

"Okay, I'll bite. If I'm not dead, why do I feel like I'm on painkillers?" I asked, then, I realized the answer that should have jumped out at me straight away. "I am on painkillers, aren't I?"

"Yep. You think you'd be thinking straight otherwise? Seriously, Lycos took a serious chunk out of you." I glanced down at my shoulder. There was an oval of very pale skin, with bite marks outlining the edge. In the centre, were a set of rough stitches, holding the wound closed. I tried lifting my arm and hissed in pain. "Yeah, Chiron said that you're not supposed to be moving that arm for another two days at least and no strenuous activity for another two weeks."

Chiron nodded, "Yes, two weeks at least, or the wound will reopen and you'll have a permanent scar. So no Archery until it's fully healed. Oh, sorry, I need to go. The oracle…" with that he was gone.

"Two weeks? That's insane… wait. Hang on. Why aren't I dead? I was turning into a werewolf. The last thing I remember, you spat leaves in my mouth. Then I blacked out. How did you stop the infection?" I asked, suddenly worried. What if I was still a werewolf and Kat had only delayed the change?

"Asphodel. Also known as…?" she said, waiting for me to finish.

"Wolfsbane… of course. Makes sense, I guess. But how did you know that would work?" I asked. I knew Wolfsbane could be used to ward off wild animals, like wolves or dogs, but I'd never heard of it being used to treat werewolfism. _Is that even a word? _I thought, bizarrely.

"Well, there was this horror film, and the main character becomes a werewolf, but his friends trick him into drinking this potion made from Asphodel, and he turns back." She said, giggling insanely.

"You're kidding. Right? You didn't really risk my life but more importantly your life, on the basis of a FRICKEN HORROR FILM?!" I screamed, really angry. I mean, how dare she risk that? When I specifically told her to kill me in order to keep her safe?

"Did you want to die?" She asked, looking me straight in the eyes.

"Well, no, but that's not the…" I started weakly.

"Then shut up, stop moaning and go back to sleep. You need to heal." She said, a little softer then normal.

I closed my eyes, and entered the dream world.

**I know, this was kind of long and there wasn't much action, but it was neccasary. I hope you enjoyed it. Please, review, it helps me write faster. All reviewers get smoochies off any PJO character they want, canon or non canon, and get to ask 1 question about the story.**


	17. Where boredom and riddles strike

**Sorry for the wait guys. I blame exams. Enjoy the chapter.**

They say Doctors make the worst patients_. But then, "They" have probably never treated a child of Apollo._ Recovering from my wounds and near-transformation was a painful business, for the first day. Seriously, it was agony, pure and simple. Which was fine.

What came after the agony, that was the kicker. The mind crushing boredom of recovering when you know, you _know, _that you don't have time to waste. So, I did what any barely sane OCD sufferer with too much time on their hands did. I obsessed. Since my source of healing was a centaur with little free time residing several miles away, and an overly aggressive thirteen year old girl, I had to most of the bandage changing, the wound cleaning, the blood pressure taking myself. As a result, I was, with liberal amounts of Ambrosia (just less then the amount that would have caused me to burst into flames) I could walk and move about with virtually no problems by the end of the second day. Admittedly, my right arm was still in a sling, but as far as I was concerned, I was more then ready to get back on the trail of the cross.

Chiron, unfortunately, had other ideas.

"Look Artie," he said, through an Iris message when Kat told him about my "over exertions" "You must realize it's a healing _process._ You need to give your body time to heal. Otherwise, you won't be any good to anyone."

"That's all well and good Chiron, but you're missing one crucial factor. I feel FINE. I've stopped shaking, my visions returned, and I don't need to be high on pain meds in order to form a coherent thought. My arm will be out of a sling in two days. I'm ready to go."

"Artie," he said, taking in a deep breath and releasing it in a deep whinny. "You were bitten by a werewolf. Not even just any werewolf, but Lycos himself. While Kat managed to stop and cure the infection, the curse has still had an effect on your body. Until I know what effects it's had on your body, I can't allow you to return to your quest."

"Chiron, we don't have time for that. Every second we spend waiting here, the Oracle is dying. We NEED to find the hellfire cross, and we need to find it fast. As soon as I figure out where the next clue is, I'm out of here, whether you like it or not." I said, feeling more angry then brave.

"You'll wait at least two days, until your arm is healed, and not a second less, or I'll send the harpies to come and collect the pair of you and give the quest to someone else." He said, sternly.

"With respect Chiron," I said, trying to calm down, "We've just faced werewolves and sphinxes. How are harpies scary after that?"

"Fine. Kat, if he tries to leave the building you're in before his arm is healed, knock him out." He waved his hand through the mist that formed the Iris message, causing it to dissolve. I gulped. Knowing Kat, she'd definitely take Chiron's instructions literally.

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As a result, I spent the next two days poring over the walls of the Lycan's home, looking for the next clue. I finally found it, inscribed behind a heavy tapestry depicting various scenes of torture, murder, etcetera.

It was a giant stone…thing. There was an inscription at the top, Pro: 29:23, and below, there were several stones, with letters inscribed on them, like scrabble tiles. They were loosely attached to the wall, and all seemed to weigh different amounts in my hand. Below it was a line of empty slots, the same size as the tiles.

"Kat, I think I've found some…OW!" Something slapped the back of my head hard, and it smacked off the wall.

A low, husky voice whispered into my ears. "Don't call me Kat." I straightened up, rubbing stars out of my eyes.

"Was that really necessary, Kat? Didn't Chiron say not to do anything strenuous?" I pleaded, sounding more hurt then I really was.

"Whatever. What have you found?" she said, her beautiful eyes alight with curiosity. _Wait…beautiful eyes? I must have hit my head harder then I thought. _

"This. I think it's a password protected door. I saw something like this in a book I read. The slots contain some mechanism that responds when the right weight is put on it. All the mechanisms are released, and something, presumably the clue will be revealed to us in some way." I said, speculating wildly.

"So what, we just plug in random letters until we figure out the sequence?" Kat asked, "That'll take days."

"Actually, it gets worse. If we put in a wrong password, it might trigger some kind of failsafe. It might unleash some kind of a trap." I said, grimly. I wasn't sure how likely that scenario was, but given the vaunted ingenuity of the ancient Greeks, I wasn't about to take ANYTHING for granted. "We need to figure out what the password is, or we're stuck."

"So how do we do that? I mean, there are six slots. The password could be anything." Kat said, her voice dripping frustration.

"Well, there's one clue. Pro: 29.23 We figure out what that means, we can figure out the password. It's obviously some kind of code… what could it be?" I searched my mind for codes I'd heard or learnt. Simple substitutions, reflection codes, even the rudimentary version of enigma that I'd learnt, none of them seemed to give me a reasonable answer.

"Hang on. It's not a code. Well, it is, but not like you're thinking of." Kat exclaimed. "It's a bible reference code! Proverbs 29, verse 23! A mans pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit."

"How do you know that?" I asked, genuinely impressed.

"You remember Stevie Barnes?" I nodded, _As if I could forget. _"Well she was raised in a catholic orphanage, and has a tendency of quoting scripture at people. Proverbs 29:23 was her favourite, especially when addressing me."

"So we have our clue then. A man's pride shall bring him low, yada yada yada. So what six letter word stands out from it?" I asked, thinking futilely. Kat, however, was on a roll.

"Pride. The Greek word for pride is hubris. Six letters. Easy." She was, to put it lightly, monumentally chuffed with herself. _And rightly so… I'd never have gotten that. _I thought in awe.

"'Kay, lets give it a go. H, U, B, R, I, S. Hey, I think that did it, listen." There was a rumbling below us, and the centre of the room began to shake as a section of the floor swung downwards and formed a staircase… leading down to what looked like a tunnel, perhaps linked up to the subway system. "A mans pride shall bring him low. Literally." I deadpanned. I paused to appreciate the grin my joke had raised on Kat's face, then started to walk down the stairs.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kat asked, suddenly sounding worried.

"Ummm…into the giant whole in the floor to see where it leads us. I thought that was obvious Kat." I said, patronizingly. _Of course, Chiron told her not to let me leave until I'm healed. _"Look, Kat, I'm perfectly fine. You know it, I know it. I can fight perfectly well left handed, and I can go one day without firing my bow."

"Fine. Whatever. But this is on your head, not mine." She said, shaking her head, as though to dislodge any guilt she may have been carrying. And with that, she followed me down, into the depths of the tunnel.

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The tunnel was, I think, an abandoned underground tunnel. It had been unused for several years, at least a couple of decades, and judging by the smell, it had probably been flooded by sewage at least once in the last year. _I'm gonna have to scrub off three layers of skin to get clean. Ah, the joy and glory of being obsessive compulsive. _The only consolation was that we were finally doing something. Three days unconscious and two days recovery had come close to sending me very stir crazy. _Now, all we need is a monster attack to break the monotony…_

Suddenly, I heard a crash, punctuated by a stream of low, guttural cursing. _That's a girl's voice. _I thought, as Kat and I span and ran in the direction of the curse words. I pulled my staff out of its pouch, trying to get the left handed grip just right, alien as it felt.

Suddenly, the cursing stopped, and a door swung open in the side of the tunnel. Something leapt out of it, screaming a death cry in ancient Greek. I managed to raise my staff in time to catch the figures spear attack and wrap my arm around it, pinning it in place. I lifted my right arm, wincing slightly, ready to punch it in the forehead when…

"Artie, wait!" Kat yelled. At the last possible second I pulled my punch. I looked at the person whose arm I had in a lock. She was dressed in a full set of Camp Half blood battle armor, and her face was covered in muck and blood. She wore no helmet, so I could see her matted, filthy blonde hair. Her eyes were a bright blue, but filled with pain, as if she had seen things no one should ever have to see. "Artie's she's a demigod. I recognize her from Camp!"

I let her go, and she collapsed to her knees, crying. Bewildered, I looked to Kat and mouthed "What do we do?" She rolled her eyes at me and shoved past. She kneeled down to look the girl in the eyes and said "I remember you from camp…you're one of Aphrodite's daughters, right?"

The girl nodded meekly and murmured "I'm Jessica." She paused, "Jessica Straleys" Kat inhaled, a look of shock rippling across her perfect features.

"You went missing on a quest a year ago! Oh gods, I can't believe it! We've gotta let camp know. Wait. First, we should get you cleaned up. Come on, We've just come from a semi livable place." Kat said, taking the Jessica's hand and leading her back to the Lycan's home, leaving me to try and deal with the deluge of new information.

"I wish people would stop doing that…" I murmured bitterly.

**Thanks for reading. I'd love reviews, and as usual, you can ask one question per review. **


	18. Where I break my pledge

**I'm not gonna waste your time apologizing and explaining the delay on this chapter. I was lazy. I'm sorry. What I will do is thank all my loyal reviewers. Crazy for stories, bobweirdy, Tori Hanson, Avenger of the Olympian Flame, Bryce, lolo300, Von de Vohn, bombplaya3, Athena's child, Crimson Taki, meiscool2, Azulish, Jenna, and 4evacrazy. You are the very best kind of people. And extra thanks go to Ellen 26, without whom, I often think I would have no inspiration to write.**

**Disclaimer: Did The Last Olympian end with Luke cast down into the Fire pits of Tartarus for being a whiny piece of snot? (personal opinion, not looking for an argument) No? Well then, I think we can safely assume that I do NOT own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

I began chasing after the two girls, shouting "Would someone PLEASE tell me what the Hell is going on?" I saw that the two girls had just climbed through the entrance to the Lycans lair. I was just about to climb the stairs when Kat looked down and said:

"What on Gaia are you doing?" She literally raised an eyebrow, her face a mask of pure scorn.

"Well, I was sort of following you…" I trailed off. "I'm actually sort of looking for an explanation, if it's not too much trouble." I shot off dryly, placing my hands on my hips. _Completely worth the pain in the arm for the effect… _I thought, wincing slightly.

"Later. Right now, I'm gonna clean this girl up. And you can't be there, 'cause you have a Y chromosome. You follow?" She asked, in the voice of one talking to a five year old. "Now, what I want you to do," she continued in that overly saccharine voice, "Is to IM Chiron, and tell him whats going on, okay?" With that, she span on her heel and left.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT? _I_ DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!" I yelled, but she was already out of earshot.

Reaching into the pockets of my bag, I pulled out a refracting prism that Kat had shown me how to make rainbows with, set in on the ground opposite my torch, and turned on the light. Then, I searched my body for a gold drachma. Finding one, I tossed it into the newly formed rainbow, said "Chiron, at Camp Half Blood"

The coin dropped straight through the rainbow, and an unearthly voice said "All rainbows are busy. Please try again later."

I scooped the coin off the ground and threw it back into the rainbow. "All rainbows are busy. Please try again later."

I threw it again. "All rainbows are STILL busy. Please try again later." This time, the voice carried a definite hint of anger.

I threw it again. "ALL Circuits are busy. Don't try again in 5 seconds." The voice no longer carried a hint of anger. It was just angry.

I took a deep breath, then threw a fifth time. "ALL CIRCUITS WILL REMAIN BUSY FOR AS LONG AS THAT SELF OBSESSED, WOMANIZING ASS YOU CALL A FATHER REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE!" The voice screamed in a high pitch, dropping me to my knees.

"Okay…I'll try later." I muttered, stumbling to the stairs to the Lycans lair.

"KAT? Can I come up yet if I cover my eyes?" I shouted up, feeling my way up the stairs. Frankly, Apollo kids aren't made for sightless navigation, we rely on our Dads light more then most, and I slipped several times, cracking my knees off the stairs. A vile curse slipped out as my shin smashed of a stair for the fifth time, and inwardly I chided myself. _Honestly Artie… What would Mom say if she heard you talking like that?_

I stopped, paled.

Mom…

It had only been a few weeks since she'd passed away… and I'd let it completely slip my mind. What kind of a heartless monster was I?

Kat and the other girl found me, at the bottom of the staircase, sobbing softly an hour later. Through slightly stinging eyes that no doubt destroyed any hope of a macho image forming in either of their minds. Not that I thought this at the time of course. I believe at that point, my thoughts were running along the lines that if I had worked harder, learnt more, maybe I could have somehow saved Mom.

"Artie? Are you all right?" Kats ordinarily harsh voice took on an almost motherly tone. It didn't suit her, but I appreciated it, wiping my eyes and sniffing loudly. _God, I must look a mess, _I thought.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I lied. I could wallow in self pity later, right now, we had a job to do, and that began with finding out who this "Jessica Straley" was, and why she was wandering around the New York sewer system. "leaving myself by the way for a few minutes, how about one of you start explaining exactly what the hell is going on.

Jessica took a deep breath, and began to tell her story, how her quest was to bring back a chronicle of the Gods, how she had been separated from the other two members of her quest, and attacked by a succession of monsters, including a swarm of Myrmekes (which she explained were a kind of gigantic insects) a large leopard thing that had tried luring her with the voice of Ashton Kutcher, which Kat called a Leucrocoate and a brief encounter with something none of us recognized, some kind of odd giant armed snake thing. Kat and I pressed Jessica for details she admitted she'd only seen it from a distance. But the thing we were really interested in, was the room she'd stumbled across when she'd been moving through the sewers.

"It wasn't far off from here, just a couple of hundred yards or so down that passage to the left. I didn't get very deep into the chamber, because the floor was sloping down, and I was trying to get to surface." She began. "But the walls were covered in Greek pictograms and on the floor, was embossed a massive cross, with lightning and all kinds of crazy stuff flying off it."

Kat and I exchanged a look. "You don't think…?" She breathed.

"Yeah…I think." I replied, in a hushed tone. "Show us where this room was, then we'll get you outside, Iris Message argus to come take you back to camp."

"WHAT?" She yelled, piercing my eardrums. "You really think I'm going anywhere? I'm in this for the long haul." She crossed her arms, defiantly.

"You know, Artie, she could be a big help…and you know quests are supposed to have three members."

"Look…Jessica, can you give us a few minutes? We need to discuss some things in private, okay?"

She raised an eyebrow, quizzically, but shook her head, and moved out of earshot.

"Kat, you know damn well why we can't let her go with us. And a third shall pay a terrible cost, remember? Or did I just imagine that line of the prophecy?" I said, trying to keep my voice low.

"I know, I know, but I knew Jessica, she's a good fighter. Only member of her cabin that knew which end of a sword to hold…and we need help Artie. Lycos almost killed you, remember?" She shot back, her tone fraught with…concern? Guilt?

"Hey, he wouldn't have killed me!" I half yelled. "Just turned me into his personal killing machine dedicated to ripping the heads off anything vaguely related to, you know…life." I shook my head. "Look, the point is, if we do this, we're signing her death warrant. I'm guessing when a prophecy talks about a terrible cost, it won't take credit cards."

"Look, prophecies are masterful pieces of equivocation, that's one of the first things you learn at Camp Half Blood. We have no proof that this will mean her death. Besides, we really don't have an option on this…we need help."

I thought about it for a long time, that seemed like an eternity…and then I made quite possibly the worst decision in my life.

"Okay…" I whispered. "Jessica…you can come. But I swear to Zeus, if you die on me, I'm gonna bring you back to life and kill you myself."

"You can't say fairer then that Jessica… and he does have a point. The thing is…the prophecy said the third member would pay a terrible cost. Are you sure you want to do this?" Kat asked, softly

"You guys found me, after I'd lost hope. Theres no way I'm not paying you back. I don't believe in prophecies anyway…There is no fate save that we make." She grinned. "Loved that movie…" She saw the blank looks we were giving her then said. "Terminator 2…you didn't see it?"

"Can we just go? Before I change my mind."

Jessica hadn't exaggerated when she described how vast the place was. It could easily have swallowed up two football stadiums, with room for a couple of hundred hot dog stands. The walls glowed with a strange phosphorescence, eerie glowing symbols on the walls that filled the hall with a soft, green glow reminiscent of night vision goggles. On the floor, was cut a giant cross, with equal length vertical and horizontal arms, like a Swiss flag, with various symbols coming off it, lightning, waves, sunlight and fire to name but a few… _All the Gods and Goddesses that contributed to the cross. _I thought _Fantastic, we must be near by._

Kat reached into her backpack and pulled out a flashlight, giving a much better view of the room. Sadly, without the claustrophobic darkness closing in, the room seemed even more massive then before. Jessica seemed to shrink back slightly. _Of course, she's been underground for weeks, maybe months…it's a wonder she's not a complete agoraphobe by now._

A thought occurred to me. Each step of the quest, each clue, had been protected by a monster… and that meant that the Cross itself must surely have something pretty massive guarding it. "Uh, guys…could you turn around for second? I want to put that breastplate you made me on, Kat." I reached down and pulled out the breast plate for the first time since I'd packed for the quest. I thought back over the quest, wondering why I didn't put it on sooner, It certainly would have come in handy in the fight against Lycos. Still, all that mattered was, the next fight I went into, I'd now be a little harder to kill.

I ran my fingers across the breastplate I now wore. It was tough, leathery, but cold to the touch like metal. It seemed to flex when I pushed slowly and soflty, but maintained its shape under a hard strike from my staff…a bit like that thing where you make cornflower solution, and punch it, to make it go hard. Of course, I suspected that this property resulted from something a bit more mystical then a "non-Newtonian fluid." Either way, it was useful to have.

"Okay, guys, you can…" I trailed off, as my eyes scanned the room, and rested on an alter, not one hundred yards from where we were standing. And on top, surrounded by an eerie glowing purplish light, lay a Cross, with equal length arms. "There it is!" I screamed, running, as fast as I could to grab it.

I lifted it from it's podium, placing it into my bag…when everything went black. The luminosity faded, and a few seconds later, I heard a shatter as Kat's flashlight exploded.

"So, you seek the Hellfire Cross? Well, you've found it." The voice seemed omnipresent, echoey, surrounding me. "And such a shame it is too…" the voice seemed mournful, at first, but it carried an undercurrent of hatred and scorn that practically left a bitter taste in my mouth. "What a shame it is…that now none of you will ever leave here alive…"

…**I'm so sorry. I keep you waiting for months then end on a cliffhanger. The next wait won't be as long, I promise, because we're near the end. Five more chapters, give or take, and we're done. As penance for the lateness of this chapter, you can ask TWO questions about the story which I will answer 100% honestly. To ask them, simply write the question in a review. Thanks for reading.**


	19. Where I light up

**Alright, here we go, another chapter. But first, thank you to my reviewers. That's a big shout to: Gray Ravenclaw, thewarriorheirlover, Son of Hades, meiscool2, Country Obsessed Teen and rt. I'm really grateful for the reviews. And to answer a question by Son of Hades, this fic takes place approximately five years before the lightning thief, roughly parallel to the time when Thalia, Luke and Annabeth were on the run together. I hope that helps.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. I can't think of a funny way to say it.**

The darkness was total. Complete. Absolute.

So was the pain as something large, heavy and very, very fast slammed into me. Again, and again, from every conceivable angle within the space of about 2 seconds. I fell to the ground, clutching my side, looking futilely around in the inky darkness for my assailant. I spat blood that had pooled in my mouth, deciding that in this case, the ability to inhale without choking on blood overrode the issues about manners that dealt with spitting.

_I'm gonna feel that tomorrow… _I thought, before an inappropriately amusing thought reminded me that I felt it _now._

I heard Jessica and Kat scream in pain as they were subjected to the same assault I had, and heard their weapons drop to the floor. Struggling to stand, I pulled my staff from it's holster, taking care to place the Hellfire cross in my pocket (a much more difficult task when you're blind.)

I focused all of my rapidly depleting consciousness, waiting for the slightest sound. Blocking out the screams of Kat and Jessica, I heard it, just a whisper of air behind me.

I span. I slashed. My staff smacked off something, I felt it's direction change away rom me into the floor, causing a crashing sound. Then it came at me again. This time, it's attack was not a swift rushing slam, but a barrage of punches, pummeling every portion of my body while I hopelessly tried to fend off an attacker I couldn't see. I was being driven backwards constantly, until I hit a wall. _That wall wasn't there before it went dark _I thought.

I heard a rib crack, the same one that the behemoth had managed broken when it had attacked me, in what seemed like an age ago. _Both of those monsters were creatures of the dark. Maybe this one's Achilles heel is light as well. _I thought desperately. _Unfortunately, all the light sources we had are trashed._

I was grabbed by the neck, and pinned to the wall. I felt it's hot, salty breath on my ear as it whispered to me, telling me of all the ways it was going to torture me, kill me and destroy me broken corpse. Through gritted teeth, I shot back "I will never give in, never give up.

To this day, I'm still not quite sure exactly how I did it, and I never did it again, but some horrific combination of adrenalin, anger, pain and probably oxygen deprivation caused something truly insane to happen. I started glowing. The shadows retreated, hissing like a fire with water poured on it, the presence released my neck. I could feel a terrible tugging in my gut as the shadows began to enclose again, pushing my tiny sphere of light back in on itself. My hands balled into fists as I punched the ground, pouring every last drop of willpower into holding my ground. My head was pounding, throbbing with an agony unlike anything I'd ever felt, until I let out one last haunting scream.

The light smashed outwards, eradicating the shadows. I saw for a moment something like an animated cloak, thrashing around in the air, steaming and burning in the light, before suddenly, the darkness that had been nibbling away at the edges of my consciousness consumed me.

The next thing I remember were a serious of snippets of conversation I overheard while I drifted in and out of consciousness.

"…he do? It's like he just exploded."

"…tapped into his ultimate power…"

"…long has he been out of sunlight?"

"…don't think I've…wait, he's waking up." That one was definitely Kat, the voice sounded odd. I looked up at her, the effort of raising my head seemed an almost herculean task.

"Did…did we win?" I managed to cough, gasping for air. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jessica digging through Kat's pack. "What…what happened…why do I feel like I got hit by a big rig?"

I tried to pull my self up. I failed, falling back and flopping, gasping like a fish, I looked pleading at Kat. "Little help here?"

While she propped me up, she snorted "You know, I really didn't sign onto this quest to be your nurse." With a look of mock disdain, she continued. "Seriously, next time you decide that you should just have a nap on this quest, I'm gonna leave you where you drop."

Jessica, meanwhile, had found whatever it was she had been looking for, and was moving back towards us. She glanced at Kat and said "Hold him still," which frankly seemed a bit redundant considering I could barely lift my head. She pointed something at me, and thumbed the button, bathing me in an odd, purplish light, while Kat pushed a small square of ambrosia into my mouth.

For some reason, even before the ambrosia was in my mouth, I was starting to feel slightly better. For one thing, I could breathe. The broken rib made it really painful, of course, but better then nothing.

"Kat," I asked, after swallowing my ambrosia "Why is Jessica using a UV torch on me?"

They looked at each other, and started grinning.

"Testing a theory." Jessica sniggered, proceeding to hold out her fist for an impromptu fist bump from Kat.

"And that theory would be?" I asked, beginning to get more then a little sick of all the cryptic smirking and half truths.

"Well, you're a son of Apollo, right?" Kat asked, adopting a tone that one might use to address a particularly brain dead three year old.

"Yes. And if you continue using that tone with me, I'm gonna actually forget that I'm currently unable to move, and the fact that you actually terrify me, and get up, rip your arm off, whack you with the soggy end and then go crawl into a corner to die in peace." I said, huffing.

"Awww, I see what you mean, Kat, he is kinda cute when he's mad." Jessica said, adopting a tone so sweet the sound practically made my teeth hurt.

"I what…no, I didn't…you said you wouldn't tell him I said that!" Kat stammered back.

I sighed, and forced myself to sit up. "Y'know, much as I love that juicy bit of banter material for later, I'd much rather know why…" I trailed off as the UV torch torch shone into my eyes. I blinked repeatedly, rubbing away the purply green spots before my eyes. "Why you're trying to blind me with a frigging UV light?"

"Well, you're the son of the sun god, and so you use the sun for energy, like Zeus kids supposedly charged up on static electricity, and Podeidons kids were stronger in water, or how Dionysus children somehow get more powerful the drunker they are."

This was news to me, but I nodded. Presumably it was one of those things they told you in camp when you'd stayed there for more then a week.

"Well, anyway, you've been out of the sun ever since we entered Lycos's palace right? And since then, you've fought for your life several times, beaten off being turned into a werewolf and turned yourself into a human glowstick. By the way, I iris messaged camp, turns out you tapped into your fathers power. Chiron said that there's only been two other Apollo-kids that have done that without ripping themselves apart in the process, so congratulations."

"Okay, I've been a bit active lately, so what?" I asked.

"So you're running on empty. You've got like, the worst vitamin d deficiency in history. Hence the UV torch, helps you metabolize Vitamin D."

"So you're saying, hang on, lets get this straight. You're telling me that the reason I can barely move is because I need to recharge my god-batteries? You've got to be making this up."

"Pretty much, yep." Jessica replied, placing the torch back in her pocket. "Try standing. It's not a perfect solution, but it should be enough to keep you breathing till we get to the surface."

"Should." I grimaced. "That's not exactly the most comforting thing I've ever been told, if I'm being honest." I pulled myself up, leaning on Jessica for support.

We stayed in the cavern for another four hours. Personally, I'd rather have started off moving straight away, but I think Kat was feeling guilty about not having followed Chiron's orders to keep me rested before, and was now making up for it. So, I spent the time stretching, cleaning up, and delighting in an unexpected bonus from my brief stint as a Demigod Johnny Storm: a full and even deep tan.

Kat had slipped off to the sewer caverns, in order scout out a quick and easy route back to the surface, leaving just me and Jessica to talk.

"Hey, can I ask you something Jesicca?" I piped up at one point.

"I would hope so. I mean, if you can't summon up the effort to ask a question, it means I have to stand around pointing a UV torch at you for another hour." She shot back sarcastically, not looking up from the polishing of her spear.

"Well, I just wanted to why you're… well, why you're not like-"

"Why I'm not like your typical Aphrodite kid, why I can fight and don't start crying if I break a nail?" She looked up at me angry. "Why don't you go around sleeping with everything with a pulse? Or play music constantly? Or act like your 'typical Apollo kid?'"

"Well, I'm only 13, I mean…"

"What, you think that cause you're thirteen, that means that you won't have sex? Oh, you poor naïve child. I could tell you stories about your brothers and sisters…" She trailed off, laughing. "The point is, you're not defined by your godly parent. You know how stereotypes are, by and large, made up on the spot?"

I nodded, unwilling to say anything that might upset the girl now waving a very shiny spear in my face.

"Well it's the same with the cabins. The gods blood in us predispose, not control. Look at Kat, she's supposed to be all sweetness, light and tree hugging etcetera. But she chose to be a warrior, and shaped herself. You, well Kat told me you had OCD which definitely isn't standard Apollo-issue. As for me, I wanted to make sure that our generation would have an Aphrodite Kid worth remembering. Like Aeneas."

I gave her a blank look. "My school didn't teach Greek mythology, and I was only at Camp for like, a week. You'll have to expound on that."

"Aeneas was a member of the Trojan Royal family, second only to hector in skill of battle. He went on to found one of the greatest empires of the ancient world, Rome." A passionate look had crept into her eyes, oddly reminiscient of the one Kat got when she was preaching about the evils of car pollution.

"Okay, point taken. You're not your mom, I'm not my father. So…change of subject…umm…hey! Besides the fact that I'm OCD and apparently cute when I'm mad, what else did Kat tell you about me?"

"Artie, I'm gonna give you a piece of advice that I suggest you take. If you really value your bits, you'll forget I said anything about Kat finding you cute."

"What?" I said holding my hands up while grinning mischieviously. "I mean, it's not like I would ever say or day anything that might make Kat uncomfortable in any way, is it?"

"Seriously. Just leave it."

"But…"

"No."

"Please?"

"Artie, I'm not telling you what she said, so just leave it."

"Aha! So she did say something."

Jessica's only response was to throw the rag she's been using to polish her spear at my face.

And hour later, we were moving quickly but cautiously through the sewer systems. Kat had picked a route which would put us only a few hundred yards from Camp half blood. We'd gotten through about two miles of tunnels, and besides the fact that each breath was like a little tiny needle stabbing into my lungs, I was ecstatic. We had the cross, we were nearly back at camp and there was nothing in our way.

I suppose, in hindsight, I should never have believed that. I should have realised that there was gonna be one more trial, one more disaster for us to face.

Even so, it was all looking good, we were nearly out. In fact, Kat already was out. We were moving along a storm drain that would have put us just south of the camp. I placed my hand against the tunnels central support, gasping for breath.

Behind me, I heard a scream.

Jessica. I span, to see her being grasped at by a huge, muscular shadowed arm, the hand of which was even bigger then she was. Instantly, I drew my bow, notched an arrow and fired, striking at the hand. The arrow bounced off harmlessly, make a small clatter as it rebounded of the wall. Out of the darkness, I saw something massive heading my way, a gigantic tail rushing through the air.

I rolled underneath it, but it struck the central support, smashing straight through it. The ceiling began to crack and splinter, unable to support its own weight. I turned to look at the drain entrance. I could make it out, and be safe, or I could try and save Jessica and get trapped. Kat was already running towards us, pulling her sword from her belt, howling like a demon. Evidently, she had come to the same conclusion.

"Kat, stop!" I screamed, just before a chunk of concrete the size of a car landed in front of her. It was followed by more and more, creating an impassable barrier between us.

I pulled myself over the rubble to the top, to where a small gap still existed.

"Kat, take the Cross to Chiron, accomplish the quest. Go!" I shouted, dropping the cross through the gap.

"But…I can't leave you guys!" She stammered.

"You can't get through this rubble. So finish the mission." I said, with a grim firmness that I didn't know I had.

"Okay. Don't die, or I'll kill you." Kat asked, her voice cracking with tears in her throat. I heard her footsteps retreating away from me.

I couldn't help grinning at that. I dropped back down to the bottom of the drain, and let my staff form in my hand.

"So, kill the monster, save the girl, get us both home safely and try to avoid passing out doing it." I cracked my knuckles. "You know, I'm starting to think that someone up there doesn't like me."

On that note, I started running after Jessica and the monster.

**We're getting to the end guys, there are two or three chapters left, (including the epilogue.) I realize I've gone with a major cliffie again, but I swear this is the last one. Or penultimate…**

**Reviews are love, and the usual standard of one question answered per review stands. However, please don't ask questions on anonymous reviews. I can't respond.**


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